Ελληνικά ναυτιλιακά βιβλία [Greek maritime books]
A few days ago I received from London my copy of the 2006 book of Bill Miller Greek Passenger Liners. It is a wonderful, concise (100 pages) book with 20+ Lines founded by Greek owners. It is very well written (but by no means exhaustive) and has some wonderful new pictures of some of our favorite ships. Some of them are from the scrapping process and break your heart. The most difficult picture to see is that of the Vera Cruz which was prepared for cruises by a Greek company (Ambassador Cruises under the name Fiesta) when she caught fire in Perama on October 24, 1999. The ship has been scrapped and all you see is its absolutely perfect white bow ... on the ground like the head of a fish that has been eaten entirely by a cat. Heartbreaking.
By the way, if you care about Greek Lines buy this book. It is excellent and costs only about 26 euros.
3 Συνημμένο(α)
G.2. Dunn, Mediterranean Shipping
G. 2. Laurence Dunn, Mediterranean Shipping, Carmania Press, London, 1999
This is the book that has already been mentioned in several threads of this Forum. It is a must for any Greek maritime enthusiast! The photographs are gorgeous and the associated text is exceptional.
The cover depicts our great Greek ship, Olympia.
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Then, I will show the general outline of two other 2-page layouts so that you can appreciate the book's style.
Below, you see page 71, all with Greek ships. The page starts with an unknown Greek ship that was probably doing the inter-island service. Under it is Sofia (1918, 1,722 tons, Nomikos Line and then John Togias) and after her Hellas (1893, 2,295 tons) of Hellenic Coast Lines
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And in page 73 we see Heliopolis (1903, 789 tons) of Typaldos, IonionKalamara (1893, 811 tons) of Typaldos and the heroic (1898, 217 tons) of Vatikioti that used to do Argosaronikos
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G.3. Tzamtzis: the Greek Ocean Liners
G.3. A. T. Tzamtzis, The Greek Ocean Liners: 1907-1977, Miletos, Athens, undated
This is the classic reference for Greek Ocean Liners in Greece and abroad. It has been cited hundreds of times, praised even more, consulted abundantly... It is of course admirably that Tzamtzis collected all this information that appeared in this book for the first time about 20 years ago. Before this book, very few knew Moraitis and its importance, remembered Byron and Edison, or had any idea where King Alexander came from. As for Moreas, Asimina and Jenny, nobody had a clue. And Tzamtzis presents everything, right in front of our eyes with lots of information!
Then why is it that I am not jumping with joy when I grab this book? Why is it that I double check almost everything mentioned in the book now that the Internet has provided this exceptional luxury to check and double-check everything. Simply because there are some unfortunate editorial errors ...
Starting from a very minor thing first, there is no publishing date in this book, at least not in the Greek version that I have. Nowhere! Why?
And although the publication quality is very good, with printing on heavy paper, one other serious, unfortunate decision has been made! More than half of the ship photographs presented are "framed" in artificial, old-style, oval shaped borders. This is a bad decision as it takes away from the expanding nature and openness of the maritime pictures. This claustrophobic style of presentation does not allow the reader to appreciate the true magnitude of the ships. As if that were not enough, an unfortunate decision has been made to use the color sepia excessively.
I think these decisions show very poor editing, although I am wondering if there was another motive in selective this style of photography.. Throughout the book there is a sense that the author is editorializing. The various maritime companies and organizations are presented as careless, money-making conglomerates; they were not! Greek agents are presented as "users" of people, etc; they were not, they were just doing their jobs!
The most disappointing part of the book is the lack of care in proofreading and double checking the references... especially in the ships listing that starts on page 132. A minor complain is the "phonetic" translation of foreign names and words in Greek, often with poor intonation.
Be that as it may, this is the best Greek book on this subject and it will remain "the standard reference" for many years to come.
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3 Συνημμένο(α)
G.5. Tzamtzis: Coastal Shipping: the First 110 Years
G.5. A. I. Tzamtzis, Coastal Shipping, the First 110 Years: 1830-1940, an insert to Efoplistis (Shipowner) of February 1997.
My good friend Roi Baudoin sent me a copy of this booklet of 68 pages about two months ago. It is a highly recommended book with important information of the early days of Coastal Shipping (Aktoploïa) and numerous hard to find photographs. Tzamtzis provides a great basis of the legal infrastructure and political implications of Greek Shipping as it was growing in young Greece.
Highly recommended!!!
Here I show the cover page. You note Athinai of Pantaleon Lines
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Below you see Elsi
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Below Arkadia of Pantaleon Lines
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