ABSTRACT
This chapter is written through the eyes of merchant seamen, in so far as we can see what they did from logs, account books, correspondence and other documents. In this way Greek shipping can be viewed from the inside through the voyages of three sailing vessels and four steamships. The aim is to reveal the daily lives of the men, as well as the operation of the ships and the working relationships. Moreover, it is an attempt to reconcile the view of the Greek maritime historian, Captain Tassos Tzamtzis, who has written ‘that seamen do not write and those that write about the sea are not seamen’.1
