Greek shipping pioneer Athina Martinou dies at 97Greek shipping pioneer Athina Martinou dies at 97

Born in 1926 in Glyfada, an Athens suburb in the city’s southern coast, she started her professional career working at her father’s law office but her family was also into shipping under the Methenitis banner and in 1971 she made the decision to go into the management of her family’s ships.

Together with her sons, Thanasis, Dinos and Andreas, she founded the company Thenamaris Ships Management in 1972 managing eight dry cargo ships. Thenamaris grew well and by 1976 was placing orders in Japan for newbuildings, and by 1978 was managing some 50 vessels of more than 900,000 dwt.

In 1990, Thanasis split from his brothers to found Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, while in 1998 youngest son Andreas set up Minerva Maritime. Now, Andreas’ son, Andreas junior, has taken over at Minerva and Nikolas Martinos, son of Dinos, at Thenamaris.

Today, the Martinos dynasty runs Greece’s largest fleet in ship terms, with 250 vessels of 24.8m dwt at mid-year, second in dwt terms to Greece’s largest owner the Angelicoussis Group’s 38m dwt.

Nounou never lost interest in the industry and could be found in the Thenamaris office. Speaking in a documentary about shipowners in 2021, Martinou described how she got involved in shipping. “I am a Cephalonian, but a role in my love for the sea was that I was born in Glyfada and I saw the ships passing by and I told my friends ‘we will make barges too’ and we did it. We were obsessed with it and we did it and the whole family made barges.”

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In 2021, the Athina I. Martinou Foundation was founded to award grants and scholarships on issues relating to the sea, spanning social welfare, health, education, culture and the environment.