The emergence of Kefalonia as the main maritime centre of the Greek and non-Greek seas (during the 19th century), was actually based on the strong growth of her deep-sea sailing commercial fleet; a commercial fleet that used to cross the Mediterranean from the Black Sea coasts towards all major ports of Eastern, Central and Western Mediterranean. These thousands of commercial voyages allowed the Ionian and, especially, the Kefalonian fleet to become one of the main players of the Mediterranean and Black Sea grain transit trade of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

(Sources: (a) Odysseus, Ionian Maritime History Database, 1810-1864∙ (b) Kapetanakis, Panayiotis S., ‘The deep-sea going merchant fleet of the Seven Islands during the time of British conquest and protection and the Cephalonian prominence (1809/15-1864). Fleet and ports, cargoes and sea-routes, maritime centres and seamen, entrepreneurship and networks, society and shipowning elites,’ Ph.D. thesis, Dpt of History, Ionian University, Corfu 2010 typescript. (http://phdtheses.ekt.gr/ead d/handle/10442/18428) (in Greek)).

Kefalonia: Voyages: Indicative content of the page as a short text in english.