TSAVLIRIS SALVAGE GROUP sponsored the "Seafarer of the Year" Award for the 5th consecutive year at the Lloyd's List Greek Shipping Awards 2009. This award is something that the Group considers to be the most important, as it pays tribute to the heart and soul of the shipping industry, the seafarer.

Lloyd's List once again hosted an evening that was exceptional, well-organized and glamorous, with hundreds of key personalities in attendance. The event was held at the Athenaeum InterContinental, Athens on Friday 4th December, 2009. Nigel Lowry, of Lloyd's List, took to the stage as Master of Ceremonies and delivered this years' annual presentation dinner.

This year Alexander G. Tsavliris, a member of the "next generation" of the Group, presented the award. His speech was eloquently delivered and he spoke the following words, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, Good evening. It is an absolute pleasure to be standing here before you all, to present this particular award. There was a statement made recently by Mr Mitropoulos, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation, which struck a chord with me, and I'd like to relay it to you this evening. 1.5 million Seafarers manage to serve more than 90% of international transport needs to 6.8 billion inhabitants on our planet. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "never in human history, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few"."

This year the award went to three heroic and outstanding men, Capt. Alexandros Stamatakis of Minoan Lines (centre right) and Operations and Human Resources managers of Anek Lines for Capt. Efstratios Kavros and Capt. Haralambos Petras. The reason why they were awarded the Lloyd's List Greek Shipping Awards Seafarer of the Year Award was due to the key role played by all three in an extremely well-coordinated operation in the Aegean Sea to rescue 53 people. On the night of Tuesday 13th January this year, the three ferries, "ELYROS" and "KRITI II" of Anek Lines and "KNOSSOS PALAVE" of Minoan Lines interrupted their services to go to the aid of a refugee boat, Jelie Su, which was semi-sunk in very bad sea conditions. The vessels manoeuvred with no little skill in high winds and waves to create shelter for all the shipwrecked migrants to be taken safely aboard another ship. The panel judged this a fine example of the capabilities and selfless professionalism of the masters and crew of the Aegean ferry lines who are sometimes called on for such humanitarian missions.