During the Napoleonic wars, around 1800, Horatio Nelson arrested a Greek ship for breaking the British blockade of the Spanish port of Cadiz.

The man hauled before the great admiral to answer for the infraction was Andreas Miaoulis. When Nelson asked why he was violating the blockade, the Greek master is said to have simply answered: “For my gain.”

If the story sounds familiar, it is because testing the limits of embargoes imposed by great powers has been part of tool kits of Greek shipowners for centuries.

Bypassing “naval blockades, which ultimately don’t blockade anything”, as Greece’s foremost economic historian, George Dertilis, described them, has been the bread and butter of daring seafarers of all stripes since antiquity.

If some Greeks have been particularly adept at bypassing them, it is not just down to the fact that the seas are notoriously hard to control.

Breaking such embargoes carries zero stigma or prosecution at home.

Living in a small country that has often suffered as a result of great powers’ machinations, most Greeks tend to have a cynical view of world affairs. The prevailing sense in the country is that when powerful nations unilaterally impose blockades in the name of lofty ideals, they usually do so to promote their own narrow interests.

That is why Greek public opinion, the press and politicians tend to shrug off any international outcry when one of their shipowning players is caught, or stands accused of, violating a blockade.

In the 1950s and 1960s, titans of the industry such as Stavros Livanos saw themselves described in the US press as “sharks of the red trade” after they shipped Chinese cargos.

That did not hurt their standing at home and did not prevent some Greek shipowners from becoming a major gateway for the international trade of communist regimes such as China, the Soviet Union and Cuba.

In hindsight, the outcry seems exaggerated. However, other infractions by some Greek shipowners remain unpalatable, such as the breaking of United Nations sanctions against minority-ruled Rhodesia in the 1960s.

Admiral Nelson eventually released Miaoulis, who would later become commander of Greece’s naval forces in the war of independence. Akti Miaouli — Piraeus’ main waterfront avenue — is named after him.

Akti Miaouli is the main waterfront avenue in Piraeus and Greece's best-known address abroad, after the Acropolis. Photo: Harry Papachristou

This article is part of a series of stories looking back at the history of Greek shipping, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the country's independence