Vassilis Constantakopoulos, founder of Costamare Shipping and one of the most respected members of the older generation of Greek shipowners, has died in Athens.
Captain Vassilis, as he was proud to be called, was born in the small village of Diavolitsi, Messinia in the Peloponnese in 1935.
He chose to study to become a deck officer in the merchant navy because of the lack of land-based jobs and in 1953 signed on for his first unpaid voyage.
After
