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Royal Olympic Cruise Lines Inc. (ROC) is a leading operator of cruise ships and tours in the Mediterranean Sea--the Greek company is the number one cruise ship operator in the eastern Mediterranean market with a market share of about 55 percent, and the second largest in the entire Mediterranean market with more than 9 percent of the total market. The company owns and operates a fleet of eight cruise ships for overnight cruises, and an additional ship used for one-day cruises. Most of the company's business takes place during the months of March through November, during which time the company concentrates on the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly destinations to the Greek islands and neighboring countries. During the December to April off-season, ROC turns to the North and South American markets, operating two cruise ships to such destinations as the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. ROC also charters out one of its ships to another tour operator during the winter season. Although most of the company's fleet is made up of secondhand vessels, some of which date back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, ROC has begun a fleet expansion at the dawn of the 21st century, taking delivery of two high-speed cruise ships, capable of top speeds up to 33 knots, in 2000 and 2002. Like the rest of the company's fleet, the new vessels are relatively small, offering space for up to 800 passengers. All of the company's vessels sail under the Greek flag. The company is traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, but is majority held by ROC Holdings, which itself is jointly owned by the founding Potamianos family and Cyprus tour and cruise operator Louis Tourist Agency.

Royal Olympic Cruise Lines was created in 1995 following the merger of two well-established, family-owned cruise ship operators, Epirotiki and Sun Line. Both companies had begun cruise operations in the Greek islands during the 1950s, at a time when Greece began developing itself as a modern tourist destination in the postwar era. Epirotiki's operations stretched back to 1830, when it was founded as a shipping company by George Potamianos, making it one of the world's oldest continuously operating shipping lines. Epirotiki went on to develop a leading position in the Greek cargo and passenger transportation trade, and began operating cruises among the Greek islands in the 1930s. In the 1950s, Potamianos's grandson, Anastassios, took over the direction of the company and focused it entirely on the cruise ship market, which was then undergoing a transformation from being a privilege of the wealthy to becoming a common vacation option affordable to the larger, middle-class traveling public.

Epirotiki partnered with the Hellenic National Tourist Office to launch the first Aegean Sea cruises in 1954. In the 1960s, Epirotiki began expanding its offerings, adding a number of Caribbean destinations, enabling the company to complement the off-season in Greece with winter itineraries elsewhere. The company tapped into the growing American tourism market, serving ports in Florida, Texas, and elsewhere. Epirotiki also became one of the first cruise ship companies to begin cruise services to Alaska.

By the end of the 1980s, Epirotiki, now headed by the great-grandsons of the company's founder, brothers Andreas and George Potamianos, was operating a fleet of 12 vessels, most of which were relatively small-sized, with its largest ship offering passenger capacity of only some 800 passengers. As competitors, including fast-rising Carnival Cruise Lines, began adding larger and larger ships, Epirotiki remained committed to its smaller-size format, emphasizing more personalized service than that available on the larger cruise liners.

The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s brought choppy waters for Epirotiki, however. Fears of terrorism cut deeply into the tourist market, and particularly scared passengers off of cruise ships in the late 1980s. In 1988, one of the company's cruise ships, the Jupiter, was hit by a freighter near the company's Piraeus home port, sinking the Jupiter and causing the drowning deaths of two passengers. The following year, a passenger was killed by an unsecured hatch on another cruise ship, the Neptune; that year, as well, another boat, the Odysseus, was forced to harbor in Portugal after it began taking on water. In 1991, two more ships in Epirotiki's fleet were out of commission, after an explosion on the company's flagship, the Pegasus, in the Venice harbor, and the sinking of another ship, the Oceanos, off the South African coast. The latter disaster was followed by severe criticism of the company, specifically complaints that the ship's captain and crew had abandoned the ship ahead of its passengers. Nonetheless, all of the passengers aboard were safely rescued.

Epirotiki fought back by rebuilding its fleet, debuting four newly acquired ships for the 1992 season, including two vessels with capacity of more than 700 vessels. By 1993, however, the company seemed unable to resist the prevailing mood of consolidation sweeping the cruise ship industry--which was hard hit again by the global recession and by the collapse of the tourist industry following the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War. While rumors suggested that Epirotiki would pursue a marriage with domestic rival Sun Line, the company instead turned toward a partnership with industry heavyweight Carnival Cruise Lines.

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Passsengers who have fond memories of riding the Sun Line ships are invited to submit their stories to steveenglishteacher@hotmail.com. They will be published in this location as part of a tribute to cruising.

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Steve McCrea

Web Content Manager

www.Roadlovers.com