Για παραπομπή : The family s activity on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea started around the middle of the 19 th century.

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1 Περίληψη : The Theophilatos family built one of the most significant Danube shipping houses. Head of the family was Ioannis Theophilatos, son of Nikolaos, who involved himself actively in maritime commerce by locating in Romania. In a short period of time he evolved into one of the most notable shipowners in the Danube area. His entrepreneurial activity led Greek maritime commerce to the steam age. He ordered the first Greek iron freighter in Τόπος και Χρόνος Γέννησης The family s activity on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea started around the middle of the 19 th century. Κύρια Ιδιότητα Ship-owners, merchants 1. Introduction The Theophilatos ship-owning family, originating from the island Ithaki (Ithaca), founded one of the most significant Danube shipping houses during the last third of the 19 th century. According to many historians, contemporary Greek merchant shipping owes its existence to the activity of the Theophilatos brothers, who were the founders of Greek ship-owning in the novel sector of steam freighters Ithaca nautical tradition (18th 19th century) The family s notable presence in shipping and commerce during the 19 th and 20 th centuries began on the island of Ithaca, which, along with Cephalonia (Kefalonia), was the main maritime nodal point in the Ionian Sea and one of the most significant in the Eastern Mediterranean in general. 2 Very important for the shipping development of the Ionian Islands was the signing of the Küçük Kaynarca Treaty, which offered ship-owners the opportunity to hoist the Russian flag and, thus, gain access to the Black Sea. 3 Many Ithacians turned to commercial routes of the Black Sea, but also Danube, one of the most significant mercantile portals in Central Europe. 4 Moreover, another main reason for the development of Ionian shipping was the considerable privileges offered to local ship-owners and merchants by the British Protectorate regime The Theophilatos Family Nikolaos Petalas Theophilatos ( ) was the father of the Theophilatos brothers who involved themselves in the Danube trade. Information on him is scarce and it is only known that he was recorded as a sea captain during the mid-19 th century. 6 Nikolaos had four sons: Antonios ( ), Spyridon ( ), Panos ( ) and Ioannis ( ). His sons only kept the Theophilatos one out of their father s two surnames Antonios Theophilatos Antonios Theophilatos was the first-born son of Nikolaos Petalas Theophilatos. He was born in 1814 in Ithaca, where he received his initial education. Around 1850 he followed his brother Ioannis, who had relocated to the Danube area in Together, they involved themselves in the grain and coal trade. At the same time, they got into the shleps 7 and harbour tugs market. Antonios Theophilatos also served as a representative in Romania for Marinos Vallianos, the grand merchant and ship-owner form Cephalonia. 8 With him and whith and his brother Ioannis, Antonios also bought the steamboat Ithaca, the first iron freighter under Greek flag. 9 After the sale of Ithaca in 1882, Antonios bought two more steamboats, which he operated until his death around the end of the century (1890). 10 Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 1/7

2 3.2. Spyridon Theophilatos (son of Nikolaos) Spyridon Theophilatos was born in Ithaca in Of him is known that he served as a consultant for two Ithacian insurance companies, namely Odysseus and Ithaca, from 1858 until He was also recorded as a sea captain and an owner of several sailing boats. He passed away in Panos Theophilatos and sons Panos Theophilatos Panos Theophilatos was born in Ithaca in Around 1850, though, he relocated to Romania following his younger brother Ioannis. With the later, he founded the Panos & Ioannis Theophilatos company (1863), which developed rapidly and gradually dominated the shleps and harbour tugs market, aiming to rule the Danube trade. In 1870 the two brothers transferred their business to Athens, keeping their presence in Danube strong however, and transformed their establishment into the largest Greek maritime company in the Danube area. Panos Theophilatos died in 1876, having had four sons, Spyridon ( ), Periklis ( ), Aristeidis ( ) and Dimosthenis. Panos death brought about the partition of the Panos & Ioannis Theophilatos company. His sons founded the Theophilatos Bros company, while their uncle Ioannis established the Ioannis Theophilatos and Sons company, run by his son Dimitrios Spyridon Theophilatos (son of Panos) Spyridon Theophilatos bas born in Ithaca in 1860; he studied both in Ithaca and Romania, where he served in different shipping agencies. Subsequently, he located in Genoa, where he worked as a maritime agent offering his services to many Greek ship-owners. He spent his whole life in Genoa and died there childless in Ioannis Theophilatos and sons Ioannis Theophilatos The youngest of Nikolaos Petalas Theophilatos sons, distinguished himself as the most significant offspring of the family in the Danube trade. He was born in Ithaca in 1827, and after receiving formal education he left for Romania, where Ithacian presence was scarce and secondary, due to the previous location there of Cephelonians and Spetsiots. Ioannis located at first in Galaţi in 1843 and in the beginning of his career was employed in the business of the greek diaspora member Sakomanos. He later quit and moved to Sulina, which was to become the centre of his shipping and commercial business. Ioannis Theophilatos or Red Beard, as Danube mariners used to call him, accomplished himself in Sulina as maritime agent, broker, ship-loader, exporter and ship-owner. He was very familiar with the shipping and portal details in the city and pioneered as an importer of new loading-and-discharge technology, introducing from Pest to the port of Sulina one of the first loading machines. 14 At the same time, he enhanced his knowledge educating himself in the English, Italian, Romanian and Russian language and taking marine architecture and engineering lessons. Acknowledging his merits, the English offered him the position of consul in Sulina. Shortly after, Ioannis moved his business to Brăila, where he involved himself in the shleps market and the grain trade. Moreover, in 1863 he founded a 100% Greek river faring business with his brother Panos, named Panos & Ioannis Theophilatos. 15 The company was involved in transferring cargo with shleps from the Upper Danube and developed significant commercial activity, even though it was rivaled by the Austrian Company of Danube and the Jewish merchants. After Panos death (1876), the river faring business was partitioned; as mentioned previously, Panos Theophilatos children founded the Theophilatos Bros company, while Ioannis established the Ioannis Theophilatos and Sons company. This shipping house cooperated with Othon, a cousin of Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 2/7

3 the family, and obtained many new ships in partnership with him. 16 Business was run by one of Ioannis sons, Dimitrios, after the former came back to Greece and relocated there. 17 In 1871 Ioannis made an entrepreneurial move no other Greek had dared before: he ordered from the English shipyard of R. Thompson in Sunderland and had built the first Greek iron steam freighter. The steamboat was named Ithaca and remained in his possession until 1882, connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and Northern Europe. 18 Ioannis Theophilatos commented on his choice of steamboats in his very interesting article Thoughts on commercial shipping in Greece, published in the 1882 issue of the journal Oikonomiki Epithorisis (Financial Review). 19 There he stressed not only the advantages of the steamboat in comparison to the sailing boat, but also the need to create a Greek steamboat fleet, thus revealing in essence the need for modernisation, supported by the younger generation of Greek diaspora ship-owners. 20 Ioannis Theophilatos and his brothers between the years are recorded to have owned 28 shleps with a tonnage of 28,687 and 4 harbour tugs with propellers from 60 to 100 horsepower in the Danube area. Consequently, they were the owners of the most shleps in Danube after the family. In 1900 they appear with only 10 shleps with a tonnage of 9,900, while in the 1916 census they are not registered at all. With their involvement in steamboat shipping before 1900 and after Ioannis death, the family s activities in that specific maritime sector started to wane. 21 Beyond his shipping and commercial business, however, Ioannis Theophilatos exhibited significant national activity. During the 1860 Cretan Rebellion, he took the initiative to raise funds among the notables in the Greek community of Brăila in order to support the Cretan cause. At the same time, he himself was supporting 100 Cretan refugee families. He displayed the same activity during the Rebellion in Macedonia and Thessaly in 1878, offering not only financial assistant to the revolutionary committees and the Greek government, but also his ships. Ioannis Theophilatos died on December 10 th 1894, leaving four sons: Nikolaos, who served as a maritime agent in Cardiff for many years (1865-;), Grigorios, chief naval architect of the Royal Greek Navy ( ), Spyridon and Dimitrios ( ) Dimitrios, Nikolaos and Spyridon I. Theophilatos Dimitrios Theophilatos was born in 1868 in Athens, where he received secondary education. Consequently, he went to Romania where he involved himself with his family s commercial business. Shorty after he was leading the Ioannis Theophilatos and Sons company, since his father decided to permanently locate in Greece. Later on he re-located in Cardiff, where he founded an office specialising in ship-owning representation and coal trade transactions. Subsequently, he assigned his brother Nikolaos with the operation of the office, while he himself took residence in Newcastle, where he established another maritime representation agency. In 1910 he expanded his business to Rotterdam and in 1912 founded one more office in London, appointing his brother Spyridon as head of the Rotterdam and Newcastle offices. In Rotterdam, specifically, he introduced a new method of mechanically discharging grain cargos. Shortly before the end of World War I, Dimitrios went to New York, where he located with his brother Grigorios, chief naval architect of the Royal Greek Navy. Dimitrios, however, returned to Rotterdam, where he occupied himself afresh as a maritime agent. He died childless in Athens in Χαρλαύτη, T. Χαριτάτος, M. Μπενέκη, Ε., Πλωτώ, Έλληνες καραβοκύρηδες και εφοπλιστές από τα τέλη του 18ου αιώνα έως τον Β Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο (Athens 2002), p. 90. Also see Κολαΐτης, Γ., Το χρονικό της Ιθάκης (Athens 1988), pp Χαρλαύτη, Τ., «Ιστιοφόρος Ναυτιλία: Η περίοδος της μεγάλης ακμής, », in Παναγιωτόπουλος, Β. (ed.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού: , vol. 4 (Athens 2003), pp Also see Χαρλαύτη, Τ., Ιστορία της Ελληνόκτητης Ναυτιλίας (Athens 2001), pp ; Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία των Ιονίων Νήσων (Athens 1995). Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 3/7

4 3. Χόμπας, Χ., Ατμόπλοια εναντίον Ιστιοφόρων ( ). Μία στατιστική ανάλυση (Athens 1998), pp , which refers to the general context within which Greek shipping developed in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. 4. On the presence of Ithacians in the Danube area, see Φωκάς, Σ., Οι Έλληνες εις την ποταμοπλοΐαν του Κάτω Δουνάβεως (Thessaloniki 1975). 5. On the history of the Ionian Islands from the time of the decline of Venice to the unification with the Greek state, see Καραπιδάκης,, «Τα Επτάνησα: Ευρωπαϊκοί Ανταγωνισμοί μετά την πτώση της Βενετίας», in Παναγιωτόπουλος, Β. (ed.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού: , vol. 1 (Athens 2003), pp ; Καραπιδάκης,, «Ιόνια νησιά, : Προστασία, το πρόσχημα της Αγγλοκρατίας», in Παναγιωτόπουλος, Β. (ed.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού: , vol. 4 (Athens 2003), pp Information on the maritime activity of Nikolaos Petalas Theophilatos was obtained from the Official Newspaper of the United States of the Ionian Islands, issue 41 (29/9-11/10/1845) and issue 205 (1022/9/1855). 7. Shleps were large iron barges used in the Danube area in order to transfer goods, since the floatation of large sailing ships and steamboats was prohibited by the shallow waters in many parts of the river. See Χαρλαύτη, Τ., Ιστορία της Ελληνόκτητης Ναυτιλίας (Athens 2001), p Πινιατώρος,, Η επίδοσις των Κεφαλλήνων και των Ιθακησίων εις την Θάλασσαν (Athens 1980), p Καρδάσης, Β., Από του ιστίου εις τον ατμόν. Ελληνική Εμπορική Ναυτιλία (Athens 1993), p Μεταξάς,, Οι Ναυτικοί της Κεφαλληνίας και της Ιθάκης, Βιογραφικά στοιχεία 600 ναυτίλων ( ) (Athens 2002), p Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ) (Athens 2001), pp Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ) (Athens 2001), pp Μεταξάς,, Οι Ναυτικοί της Κεφαλληνίας και της Ιθάκης, Βιογραφικά στοιχεία 600 ναυτίλων ( ) (Athens 2002), p Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ) (Athens 2001), pp Σπανδώνης,, Ο Πλούτος μας (Athens 1891), pp Κολαΐτης, Γ., Το χρονικό της Ιθάκης (Athens 1988), pp Also see Βλασσόπουλος,, Η Ναυτιλία των Ιονίων Νήσων, Β (Athens 1995), p Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ) (Athens 2001), pp Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ) (Athens 2001), pp Παπαθανασόπουλος, Κ., Ελληνική Εμπορική Ναυτιλί α ( ). Εξέ λιξη και αναπροσαρμογή (Athens 2001), pp , where the whole of Ioannis N. Theophilatos article on commercial shipping in Greece is presented. 20. Καρδάσης, Β., Από του ιστίου εις τον ατμόν. Ελληνική Εμπορική Ναυτιλία (Athens 1993), p Also see Παπαθανασόπουλος, Κ., Ελληνική Εμπορική Ναυτιλία ( ). Εξέλιξη και αναπροσαρμογή (Athens 2001), p. 60, where Ioannis Theophilatos modernising ideas with regard to the need to ameliorate the operation of the Greek commercial shipping are presented. 21. Φωκάς, Σ., Οι Έλληνες εις την ποταμοπλοΐαν του Κάτω Δουνάβεως (Thessaloniki 1975), pp Κολαΐτης, Γ., Το χρονικό της Ιθάκης (Athens 1988), pp Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 4/7

5 23. Βλασσόπουλος,, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ) (Athens 2001), pp Also see, Οι Ναυτικοί της Κεφαλληνίας και της Ιθάκης, Βιογραφικά στοιχεία 600 ναυτίλων ( ) (Athens 2002), p. 85. Βιβλιογραφία : Χαρλαύτη Τ., Ιστορία της ελληνόκτητης ναυτιλίας, 19ος-20ός αιώνας, Νεφέλη, Αθήνα 2001 Χαρλαύτη Τ., Χαριτάτος Μ., Μπενέκη Ε., Πλωτώ. Έλληνες καραβοκύρηδες και εφοπλιστές από τα τέλη του 18ου αιώνα έως τον Β Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο, Αθήνα 2002 Καρδάσης Β., Από του ιστίου εις τον ατμόν. Ελληνική εμπορική ναυτιλία , Πολιτιστικό Τεχνολογικό Ίδρυμα ΕΤΒΑ, Αθήνα 1993 Φωκάς Σ., Οι Έλληνες εις την ποταμοπλοΐ αν του Κάτω Δουνάβεως, Ίδρυμα Μελετών Χερσονήσου του Αίμου, Θεσσαλονίκη 1975 Μαρκοπούλου Μ., Οι Κεφαλλήνες και οι Ιθακήσιοι στη ναυτιλία του Δουνάβεως, Αθήνα 1967 Χόμπας Β., Ατμόπλοια εναντίον ιστιοφόρων ( ). Μία στατιστική ανάλυση, Αθήνα 1998 Πινιατώρος, Η επίδοσις των Κεφαλλήνων και των Ιθακησίων εις την θάλασσαν, Αθήνα 1980 Βλασσόπουλος, Η ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης ( ), Παπαζήσης, Αθήνα 2001 Βλασσόπουλος, Η ναυτιλία των Ιονίων νήσων, , Α, Ελληνική Ευρωεκδοτική, Αθήνα 1995 Βλασσόπουλος, Η ναυτιλία των Ιονίων νήσων, , Β, Ελληνική Ευρωεκδοτική, Αθήνα 1995 Χαρλαύτη Τ., "Ιστιοφόρος ναυτιλία: Η περίοδος της μεγάλης ακμής, ", Παναγιωτόπουλος Β. (επιμ.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού, Δ, Αθήνα 2003, Παπαθανασόπουλος Κ., Ελληνική εμπορική ναυτιλία ( ). Εξέλιξη και αναπροσαρμογή, Μορφωτικό Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, Αθήνα 2001 Κολαΐτης Γ., Το χρονικό της Ιθάκης, Αθήνα 1988 Καραπιδάκης, "Τα Επτάνησα: Ευρωπαϊκοί ανταγωνισμοί μετά την πτώση της Βενετίας", Παναγιωτόπουλος Β. (επιμ.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού: , Α, Αθήνα 2003, Καραπιδάκης, "Ιόνια νησιά, : Προστασία, το πρόσχημα της αγγλοκρατίας", Παναγιωτόπουλος Β. (επιμ.), Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού: , Α, Αθήνα 2003, Μεταξάς, Οι ναυτικοί της Κεφαλληνίας και της Ιθάκης. Βιογραφικά στοιχεία 600 ναυτίλων ( ), Αθήνα 2002 Πηγές Επίσημη Εφημερίδα του Ηνωμένου Κράτους των Ιονίων Νήσων (Gazette Ionienne), issue 41 (29/9 11/10/1845), issue 205 (10 22/9/1855). Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 5/7

6 Σπανδώνης,, Ο Πλούτος μας (Athens 1891). Βοηθ. Κατάλογοι Danube shleps owned by Ithacians ( ) Shipowner 1870 Lekatsas S. Name of the ship Tons Built in Date of ship building Registered in Captain Argostolion 180 England 1869 Brăila Chios 212 Venice 1874 Ithaca Neos Antonios Theophilatos P. Marathon (Klisova 1) 1875 Galați 220 Kherson 1863 Ithaca Grivas D. Eleni 68 Galați Limnos Brăila Parnassos 460 Brăila Ilissos 167 Austria Ithaca Imvrios 170 Galați Ithaca Kifissos 312 Austria Ithaca Samos 331 Austria Ithaca Spercheios 312 Austria Ithaca Thasos 179 Austria Ithaca Mantzaris P. Panagia 166 Danube Maratos Α. Olga Petalas Bros. Peloponnisos Ellispontos 102 Brăila G. Pierros Ikarion 78 Ithaca I. Chrysafis Lavrion 170 Ithaca P. Verykios Tilemachos 43 Ithaca D. Alimeriotis Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 6/7

7 Vlassopoulos Efst. Mentor 34 G. Tzannatos Olymbos G. Tzannatos Paraskevi 43 K. Mavrogiannis Maroulis K. Odysseus 74 Ithaca I. Maroulis Maroulis Pan. Evmaios 18 Ithaca P. Kallinikos Petalas Bros. Konstantinos 600 Ithaca P. Michalitsianos Raptopoulos Κ. Madouri Danube Source: Βλασσόπουλος,, Η Ναυτιλία της Ιθάκης (Athens 2001), pp Δημιουργήθηκε στις 22/5/2017 Σελίδα 7/7