The Story of the Reboul and Akavi (the name was spelt Akaoui until recently) Families of Istanbul - Osman Öndeş

Michel Akavi moved with his family aged 5 from Ottoman Beirut to Istanbul as his father sought work. Michel grew up in Istanbul, later fell in love with Yvonne daughter of Timothée Reboul and grand daughter of Laurent, from a French origin family who were shipping agents.

The Reboul family lived in early 19th century on the Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius that was administered by France since 1715. The British took control of Mauritius in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. The Reboul family not wishing to become British subjects left the island for Marseille and after a short residency moved to Izmir in 1820. In this city they raised chickens, however left this city with hopes of better trade to the Black Sea port of Trabzon. Here they established the L. Reboul shipping agency, starting their long association with the maritime trade.

Looking at the trade registers of Trabzon at the time, the following commercial houses and shipping agencies are listed:

- Mimbıyıkzade Haci Hüseyin - Shipping
- Üçüncüoğulları - Shipping
- Yelkenci Ömer - Shipping
- Haci Agosyan Istefan Ağa - Merchant
- Puluroğlu Nikola Ağa - Merchant
- Merküryan Agop Aga - Merchant
- Sargancioglu Nikola Aga - Merchant
- Kirzade Aci Ismail - Shipping Merchant
- Yunuszade Ali Sefik - Shipping Agent
- J.J. Hochstrasser - Shipping Agent, Import - Export
- Carlo Fonzi - Shipping Agent, Import - Export
- Nemlizade Mithat - Shipping Agent.
- L. Reboul - Shipping Agent

Nemlizade were one of the established families of the port whose past can be traced back to the 16th century to Nemlizade Seyir Ağa.

We are able to follow the trail of the Reboul family in the Dutch Consular records of Izmir. In 1828 Alexandre Timothée Reboul and his wife Elizabeth (née Tricon) applied to the Dutch Consul of Smyrna, Jacop van Sennep, to register their son Laurent Timothée Reboul. As revealed in the registers, the witnesses to this registration was the well-known local merchant Charlton Whittall, together with J. Keun and D. Abro.

A later generation of the Reboul family in 1885 move from Trabzon to Istanbul. From the next generation of Reboul, Ivonne Reboul was born in Istanbul in 1889, whose daughter Jan Akavi takes up the story:

“My mother Ivonne Reboul was the eldest daughter of the family whose siblings were Laurent Reboul, Gil Reboul and Jacques Reboul. Laurent was the one who grew up to be a shipping agent. My maternal grandfather and grandmother lived in Kadıköy in a house next to the sweet confectionary shop of Hacı Bekir’. My mother was also born in that house. Laurent Reboul was 2 years younger than my mother. He started the shipping agency around 1910, making it one of the oldest in Istanbul. Following WWI he went into partnership with the Belgian Gabriel Couteaux, and the firm’s new name became L. Reboul & G. Couteaux Shipping Agency. Laurent Reboul was the president of Chambre Des Maritime Pour Etrangeres for nearly 30 years and following his death, this role was taken over by Gabriel Couteaux. Laurent Reboul’s tomb is in the Feriköy Latin Catholic cemetery.

The Reboul company represented Les Messageries Maritimes, La Compagnie Paquet going back to their Trabzon residency. The Pauet representation carried on till my time. This latter company was French and the specialized in the export of eggs from Trabzon to Spain. This company later abandoned the freight work and became a pure passenger transport line and changing its name to Cruvasier Paquet. Messagerie Maritimes was a French state shipping line.”

Jan Akavi was born in 1920 in Kadıköy, Bahariye (Cevizlik) quarter in a house on one of the streets next to the Saint Joseph Lycee. His brother Josef was also born in this house in 1919, and the other brother Robert later became a lawyer in France. Jan Akavi for his junior education went to French nursery at the nearby Sakıağacı Sokak and later the school within the French Consulate run by the St. Louis Capuchin order. In 1925, together with his father Josef Akavi he went to the South of France and continued his education in a priest run school in the town of Nimes. His father had gone to the same school. He returned to Istanbul in 1938, applied to be accepted for military service in Turkey, was enrolled in 1940 and did his 3 and a half year service in the eastern Anatolian town of Diyarbakır. He would fondly remember his military service years thus:

“It was the war years and each time service complete report would be followed by a declaration that the service had been extended by another 6 months. In 1941 the Germans had gone as far as Stalingrad, but finally I was released and returned to Istanbul. My father had an antiques shop in the Covered Bazaar and I started working beside him. However with the Varlık Vergisi [Wealth Tax] life became unbearable. My father stated that despite everything this was his country and he would withstand this, but that we had to now look after ourselves. He recommended I join the Gabriel Couteaux shipping agency. However I declined the suggestion thinking I couldn’t compete amongst all the experienced staff at the agency. However I thought I could do another job and I found employment with the Van der Zee shipping agency.

In those years the Van der Zee shipping agency was represented by Redon Vanoviç who had Yugoslav origins and was a banker. Amongst the staff were Josef Vonn and one of the partner of the firm Vasiliadis. The offices of the Van der Zee Company was in Karaköy Hüdavendigar Han.

Later I asked for a rise and not only was it refused but stated since my wife also worked that our income should be sufficient for us. This was unacceptable to me and I immediately left and joined the Miloviç shipping agency belonging to Constantino Miloviç, whose offices were in Şarap İskelesi Sokaği. In this company were Bernard Stamboli who I trained as a shipping agent and also the cousin of Miloviç, Roberto Miloviç. When later the Miloviç Shipping Agency folded, Kosta Schoneff, Roberto Miloviç and Bernard Stamboli established the Şark Ekspres Shipping Agency. Constantino Miloviç learnt the trade of shipping while working for the Laurent Reboul agency, and later opened his own company.”

Jan Akavi later leaves the Miloviç shipping agency and moves to a better paid job with Air France, with whom he stays for 3 years. During this period there was a situation change as described by Mr Akavi: “In the period when I left the Reboul shipping agency its work began to falter. In my Air France job I lived modestly and save money. In 1953 the Reboul Company came to me and offered the position of the Izmir branch with full powers. I accepted and in time I became a partner with increasing share of the company with time. By the time I owned half the shares of the company Laurent Reboul had died and I thus became partners with Gabriel Couteaux. My share for the Istanbul branch of the company was at around 25% and when later Gabriel Couteaux died (1981) I set up two shipping agencies: Transmar in Istanbul and Egemar in Izmir. The various American, French etc. shipping companies we represented for many years gradually disappeared, some withdrawing from the sector, many going bankrupt. Prudential Lines, Messagerie Maritimes, Paquet and Daher all went bust in time”.

Jan Akavi was the president of the Vapur Donatanları Derneği [Shipping Chandlers Association] in Izmir between 1955-1970. The offices of the association were in Pasaport. Mr Akavi remembers the father of Hendrik Dutilh, the manager of the Van der Zee firm Zakharides and Maltass, who was the Izmir manager of the Charles Wilkinson’s shipping agency. Jan Akavi first lived in Bornova and later moved to Izmir proper and two children in those years a son with the same name is he had and a daugher, Michelle. Jan Akavi junior also chose the shipping profession and in time became the Antwerp representative of Koçtuğ. Later when this firm withdrew its involvement in shipping, Jan junior set up a partnership with Ömer Araz for Normed Denizcilik Taşımacılık ve Tic. AŞ, shipping agency. This led to a successful venture with the Normed Line acting as a container conveyor across Northern Europe. Michelle Akavi married in 1971, lived in Hong Kong for 30 years and according to her father’s words: “In a miraculous way my daughter and her husband returned to Istanbul and opened a shop selling Chinese wares”.

Jan Akavi senior has a anectode from his time of work with the Prudential Lines: “The owner of the Prudential Lines was the shipping magnate Spiros Skuras who also owned the world famous American studio, 20th Century Fox. At the time it was like a huges school for famous film stars and major productions. Prudential Lines in turn was seen as the giant of containerised traffic in the USA. They had perfected a new and efficient transportation system they called ‘Lash’.

Shortly after the aging and ailing Spiros Skuras passed the management of the executive committee of the company to his son. In those years Prudential Lines was active across all the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1970 Spiros Skuras launched one of ships, built in New Orleans, with the name of Lash Türkiye and deliberately not using the English word ‘Turkey’ as a homage to the country. In addition he had invited Jan Akavi to the launch ceremony. Guests of honour of the day included the Turkish Ambassador to the US and his wife and Mr Skuras has a photo taken standing next to them to record that history.