Top Greek government and shipping officials have expressed their grief at the death of John Angelicoussis on Saturday.
The president of the Angelicoussis Shipping Group (ASG) was not just the country’s biggest shipowner.
Far more crucially for policymakers, the deceased magnate also was the staunchest supporter of the country’s flag at a time when most of his peers were busy registering their vessels under offshore jurisdictions.
“John Angelicoussis honoured maritime tradition and our home country in every way,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a statement just a few hours after the 72-year-old owner’s death was announced.
“He conquered the oceans by raising the Greek flag and by bringing the base of his activities back home.”
Almost all of ASG’s 140 vessels fly the Greek flag, accounting for nearly one-third of the country’s entire oceangoing fleet.
The growth of Angelicoussis' Greece-flag fleet has been in stark contrast to trends in Greek-controlled shipping, which has been booming as well — but under foreign flags.
“John Angelicoussis was a special Greek and a great patriot,” said deputy shipping minister Kostas Katsafados.
Between 1982 and 2020, the share of the Greece-flag commercial fleet as part of the world total dwindled from 11% to just 3.3% in terms of tonnage, according to United Nations figures (see graph).
The importance of ASG’s policy isn’t just symbolic.
Domestic law requires that the masters and some senior officers on Greece-flag vessels must be locals. Angelicoussis’ huge fleet thus provided jobs and training to hundreds of Greek seafarers, sustaining maritime traditions that many fear are on the wane.
Mitsotakis' government recently enacted laws to boost the country's shipping registry, basically by lowering labour costs on domestically flagged vessels.
Theodore Veniamis, president of the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS), was also quick to offer his condolences.
“Today we lost one of our own, a dear friend, a gentleman,” he said in a statement. “Greece’s entire maritime family mourns the loss of one of its most illustrious representatives.”
Angelicoussis had served on the UGS board for more than two decades.
Officials also expressed their backing and offered their best wishes to Angelicoussis' 39-year-old daughter, Maria, who succeeds her father as ASG’s chief executive.
“Τhe steering wheel now passes to the strong hands of John’s only child, Maria, and it’s certain that her compass as well will point in one direction only — forward,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis said.
Katsafados added: “I am certain that Maria ... will continue John Angelicoussis’ work and contribution to shipping and Greece.”
