AMVER Awards to Honor Greek Shipping Heroes

This year’s AMVER Awards Gala Dinner, one of the most important annual events of the shipping industry, will honor all the participating ships of the US Coast Guard’s AMVER Program and ships that voluntarily run to the rescue of vessels and crews in distress across the seven seas.

The event, which will take place on December 16 at the Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel and see representatives from almost the entire Greek shipping community, will honor 247 Greek shipping companies and their ships who volunteer to the program year in year out.

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the Greek edition of the annual awards event which is organized by the International Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Piraeus, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Greece and the United States Coast Guard.

Its inaugural edition in 1992 presented the AMVER award to 45 Greek companies and since then, the idea of the award “has garnered favorable responses from the merchant shipping industry around the world,” said to Costis Frangoulis, President of the International Propeller Club, of the United States, Port of Piraeus and Vice President of the International Propeller Club of the United States.

The AMVER System (Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue) monitors ships, identifies possible problems and informs ships in the vicinity to approach and provide assistance. It officially came to life on 15 April 1958 through the efforts of the United States Coast Guard and a number of commercial shipping representatives.

Furthermore, over 11,000 international ships participate in AMVER and an average of 6,300 ships are added on the AMVER plot each day. The AMVER Center computer receives over 40,000 AMVER messages a day.

On that note, Fragoulis added that  since 2000 “almost 7,000 lives have been saved by AMVER-participating ships and many of them owe their lives to the selfless and altruistic efforts of Greek seamen and vessels.”

Greek companies received more than 2,000 AMVER Awards last year alone, proving Greece’s leading position in the global maritime community, according to Frangoulis.

The International Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Piraeus is a non-profit association and is one of the oldest maritime institutions in Greece. It was conceived as an idea in New York in 1922 by a group of professionals engaged in the merchant marine industry whose regular meetings led to the foundation of the Propeller Club of the United States.