General Steam Navigation Company of Greece
The General Steam Navigation Company of Greece , better known as Greek Line , was a Greek passenger shipping company .
history
The shipping company was founded in 1939 by Basil Goulandris and his brothers. The first ship was used acquired Tuscania (16,991 GRT) British Anchor Line , with the Nea Hellas a transatlantic trade of Greece was taken. After the Second World War , further ship purchases followed until 1951, when Alexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow commissioned the first new construction of the Greek Line, the Olympia (17,362 GRT). The ship was finally put into service in 1953 and remained the only new building for the shipping company. As a result of the triumphant advance of passenger aviation, the Greek Line's scheduled passenger services accumulated so high losses in the 1960s that more cruises were offered. The shipping company gained worldwide fame in December 1963 when its cruise ship Lakonia (20,314 GRT) caught fire and sank, killing 128 people. The company got into financial difficulties in the early 1970s. In 1975 it went bankrupt and the last two ships, Olympia and Queen Anna Maria , were sold.