Elias Kulukundis — author of some of the most gripping shipping books — died on 3 July from cancer in his home on the Aegean island of Syros, Greece. He was just a couple of weeks shy of his 83rd birthday.

Born into one of the country’s most influential shipping families, Kulukundis became a shipowner relatively late in life, after being an academic, a writer, political activist and documentary maker.