It is just under 50 years since Jackie Kennedy married the shipping mogul Aristotle Onassis in a tiny chapel on the Greek island of Skorpios.

This union helped propel Hellenic shipping into the global spotlight as American “royalty” tied up with the “Golden Greek” industrialist.

Onassis did not have the looks or power of Jackie’s first husband, the US president John Kennedy who was assassinated five years earlier in Dallas.

But he had bags of cash — he owned Skorpios and a huge fleet of tankers — and had a wonderful, if roguish, charm.

Onassis was an old friend of Jackie and offered the former First Lady a different kind of lifestyle in the wake of her husband’s assassination.

There has never been another generation of shipowners like Onassis and his arch-rival Stavros Niarchos who became synonymous with wealth and glamour.

But nearly half a century later, the Athen’s shipping scene is still king of the global waterfront.

As my colleague Harry Papachristou reported last week, the Greek shipping industry has actually increased its share of the global market in recent years.

The Greek sector now represents 16.4% of the global fleet, far in excess of the market share held by its nearest rival Japan and more than double that of Germany.

So how is it that a nation of vessel owners can go through the worst maritime recession in decades, as it just has, and still come out on top?

One trite explanation might be to ask what else a bright young person would want to do in Greece. Set up a tourist agency? Make olive oil?

Shipping in Athens is not only high-profile, it has history, culture and a considerable amount of money attached to it. And, it is the dominant industry. 

In Norway, which is similar in terms of its population and its commitment to shipping, the sector has a lucrative employment rival in the oil and gas sector.

Countries such as Germany have car manufacturing, electronics and general engineering. Britain has banking but almost no public recognition of, or interest in, its maritime sector.

The Greek government is mindful of its shipping industry in a way that others are not, but few local shipowners would say (privately) their politicians fully understand its importance.

These maritime men and women appear to relish the freedom to do business their way above almost all other considerations. They are also willing to be risk takers, ruthless and opportunistic like all good entrepreneurs.

The truth of “Greek shipping” is that it is almost as synonymous with London or Monaco or Zug as it is with Piraeus.

Local taxes are rather more important than many other considerations when it comes to deciding where to base a shipping business. How many Greek-owned vessels are owned, operated and flagged in the homeland territory?

But there is enough of a maritime cluster in Athens that brings a pooling of expertise and attracts a service sector around it.

Another characteristic that surfaces when you talk to people about Greek shipping is the phenomenal work ethic in the sector.

Critics sometimes compare this with the apparently more laid back attitude of the Norwegians.

The now deceased, Kare Valebrokk who set up TradeWinds and hired me, used to say a generation of Norwegians risked being “spoiled” by the easy wealth of petroleum.

Other characteristics of Greek shipping? There are the family structures and networks, but there is also a tremendous understanding of how to forge strong and lasting relationships with bankers, through good times and bad.

I do not believe in a shipping gene or any other element of exceptionalism that comes attached to a particular nationality or race.

And there are signs that the younger generation of Greeks is moving abroad to escape a local economy that remains badly damaged from the 2008 banking crisis.

Other young Greeks no doubt consider sectors such as technology as potentially more lucrative and yet much less capital intensive than shipping.

But clearly local conditions, culture and history can play a significant role in forging a local identity.

The Greek shipping identity also seems to have one more key element. This is summed up by Evangelos Pistiolis, the mover and shaker behind Top Ships.

He told the society magazine Tatler recently: “I love shipping the way Dali loved painting.”

We could all perhaps learn something from the current generation of go-go — if not quite Golden — Greeks.