According to our records, the first Pittas shipowner was Fraggoulis Pittas . Historical records show him as the owner and Captain of barque "Eleni" in 1849. His son Nikolaos F. Pittas is the first Pittas shipowner we have more information about.

He was born in Chios Island of Greece in 1837. If our information is correct, the first vessel he fully owned was "YPAPANTI", a 700 tons wooden, sail vessel that was built in Chios in 1873. He became the captain of the ship and his younger brothers and other relatives and friends joined him as crew. The vessel traded in the Mediterranean and Black Sea and the Captain himself always found its next employment from the destination port. He was at all times the Commercial, Technical and Financial Manager of the vessel. No office ashore existed as communications were so poor that people at the home island in Chios often had no news of their whereabouts for months. Business was flourishing at the time and soon N. Pittas could afford the purchase of more ships. We have on record the "SOTIRAS" a 780 tons ship that was bought in 1876 and barque "CHIOS" the first 1000 ton ship which was built in Chios in 1878. A few other ships followed. Some were entrusted initially to brothers of N. Pittas and subsequent purchases to his sons. Nikolaos Pittas also acted for about 30 years as the managing director of the ship insurance company "The Two Sisters" which insured the biggest part of the Chian sailing boats till they were replaced by the steam ships.

The attached is a photo taken of an embroidery depicting this vessel. The embroidery was hand-woven by Ypatia Pitta, (daughter of N.F. Pittas) in 1889. Around the turn of the Century Nikolaos F. Pittas separated from his brothers and changed the name of the company, appropriately to NIKOLAOS F. PITTAS AND SONS. The first steam powered vessel the family acquired was S/S "Artemis" (1100 ton) which was purchased in 1906 and was torpedoed by the Germans in 1917!