Constantine M. Los was born on
the
Ottoman-controlled
Greek island of
Chios, in
1871.
He was the youngest son of the shipping
magnate Matheos S. Los. He was trained in
maritime skills in Chios. In
1904 he went to
New York and became the chief engineer of a line of
ferryboats operating in
New York harbour, and in
1906 he went to
Panama to assist in the maritime aspects of the
building of the
Panama Canal.
Around
1910 he returned to Chios. Utilizing the personal
capital he amassed in the Americas, he assumed control of the fleet
his father left to his older sons after his death in
1881.
Between
1914 and
1930 he revamped the Los
fleet, replacing several ships with the then modern
steam ships. He continued to
expand the fleet until the outbreak of
World War II.
In
1922, as the Turkish army invaded
Asia Minor westward towards
Smyrna (the
Destruction of
Smyrna), Costis Los offered and personally captained his only
locally available ship to the Greek efforts to assist the 1,500,000
resulting Greek
refugees by transporting them to safety in mainland
Greece.
During World War II, Costis Los' entire fleet was
requisitioned by the
Allied Forces, and in turn suffered losses. By
the end of the war, his sons had established offices in
London,
Montreal and
New York, although he continued to
oversee operations from Chios.
The New York-based sons had
played a role in the decision of the
American government to liquidate its
wartime fleet of
Liberty Ships to private interests that had
lost ships on behalf of the Allied Forces during the war, including
the allocation of 107 of these ships to Greek shipowners, with
lucrative sale terms.
With the profits of the Liberty Ships
allocated to Costis Los, the fleet began to grow once again, and by
the 1950's he was commissioning new shipbuildings in
Japan.
Costis Los is also credited
with numerous charitable works in Chios, including the construction
of a water-pumping station and the development of a beach, now
called Los Beach.
Costis Los died in
1962 in Chios, having already passed the operation of
his fleet to his sons.