50 years without Onassis

WHEN Aristotle Onassis died in Paris in March 1975, the immediate concern was for the future of his empire, rather than for the fortunes of Greek shipping. As it happens, both have thrived in the half-century since his departure from the scene.

No doubt, Greek shipping lost its most celebrated player and one who — for the outside world, at least — defined its image. But by that juncture, it was already established as a diverse community of several hundred distinct companies.

In the mid-1970s, Greek shipping was on an upward trajectory and on the cusp of cementing itself as the foremost shipowning nation in the world for decades to come. It could survive the passing of any one individual — even an Onassis — and so it did.

The worries for his business empire were no more or less than would swirl on the demise of any charismatic leader without an obvious successor already active within the organisation.

Perhaps pessimistic speculation ran a little deeper because of the failure of Olympic Airways — his most visible business, along with his tankers — which was in the process of being handed over to the Greek state.

Onassis had already prepared his final will and testament, which divided his fortune — including 51 ships and several more on order — between Christina, his only surviving child, and a public benefit foundation still to be set up in the name of his deceased son, Alexander.

At the time, many saw these plans as doomed to fail, for one reason or another.

In retrospect, however, the scheme was pure Onassis. He knew he could count on the diligence and loyalty of his surviving lieutenants, who safeguarded both sides of the fortune, as well as his enduring legacy, which is the work of the foundation.

It was a means of projecting himself into the future. The continuance of the Onassis name in Greek public life and the existence today of an Onassis tanker fleet run for the account of the foundation and ultimately for the public benefit have contributed to keeping his memory bright whenever there is discussion of Greek shipping’s DNA.

“It is indeed 50 years with Onassis, not without Onassis,” argued Antonis Papadimitriou, the president of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation.

“The founding events of the Onassis Foundation were the death of Alexander and then Aristotle. The latter’s genius was to instil the DNA and the broken promise of the life of Alexander into his foundation.

“He willed it to be named for his son. And he willed to entrust it to the loyalty of people he knew would fulfil that promise and nurture that DNA.

“Would he have done the same things we, his successors, have accomplished? I doubt it. Would he be pleased? I strongly think so,” said Papadimitriou.

“Onassis lives on through his legacy, not through stories about his lifestyle, which would have been otherwise quickly forgotten.”

For Angeliki Frangou, one of today’s leading shipowners, that legacy is reflected still “in the continued dominance of Greek-owned fleets and the entrepreneurial drive he introduced in future generations of Greek shipowners.

“Onassis’ major contribution to the maritime industry was the shift from a local, fragmented model to a worldwide industry by investing in large, modern tankers and capitalising on the post-war oil boom.”

This strategy also had the effect of positioning Greek shipping at the forefront of global maritime trade, especially in oil and bulk cargo transport, according to Frangou.

“Onassis demonstrated the power of strategic alliances, leveraging his connections with global players and governments, which helped to strengthen Greece’s position

as a dominant maritime nation.

“Additionally, he introduced modern management practices, innovative financing, and new business models that reshaped shipping operations,” she said.

Lloyd’s List concurred with that judgement a quarter of a century ago, when the first issue of the daily newspaper in the new millennium looked back on the giants who changed the face of shipping during the 20th century.

It had no hesitation ranking Onassis as its ‘Man of the Century’, ahead of Ted Arison and Malcolm McLean, respectively the pioneer of modern cruising and the inventor of containerisation. “His impact on shipping was immense,” this journal said.

At the same time, though, it is worth recalling what a different place the industry was at the time Onassis was making waves in shipping — and just how much Greek shipping has changed and developed during 50 years without him.

One of the defining episodes in Onassis’ career had been his putative mega-deal with Saudi Arabia that was eventually torpedoed by the American oil majors. They boycotted his tankers in retaliation, threatening his entire business.

But the silver lining was that in 1956, when Britain, France and Israel warred with Egypt and the Suez Canal was closed, he was the only major shipowner with most of his fleet free to take advantage of skyrocketing rates for carrying oil around the Cape of Good Hope.

The canal was again closed, this time for eight years, after the Six-Day War in 1967, and would reopen again only a few weeks after Onassis’ death.

He and other shipowners were able to reap the benefit of booming tanker markets that resulted from this, encouraging the continual growth in tanker sizes, of which Onassis was one of the leading proponents. However, overbuilding had left excess capacity and owners facing hard times.

Onassis’ successors managed to cancel a couple of his new tanker orders, at great cost. One of the newbuildings that proceeded, the 275,000 dwt Olympic Bravery, was wrecked on its maiden voyage early in 1976, after it ran aground due to mechanical failure.

The tycoon lived in an era where the safety of increasingly large tankers was causing huge concern. There were two reasons for this.

One was a string of explosions that shook tankers during the late-1960s and early-1970s. These were eradicated over the years due to the introduction of requirements for tankers to have inert gas systems, but the first layer of these regulations did not come into force until 1980.

Tanker spills, combined with the advent of television, had begun to tarnish the industry’s reputation, but Onassis did not live to see the full force of this. The worst tanker pollution incident during his lifetime was the Torrey Canyon accident in 1967. The worst half-dozen tanker spills in history, including the Aegean Captain collision and the Amoco Cadiz, had yet to occur.

Since then, the shipping industry and the tanker sector in particular have transformed themselves in terms of safety.

For most of his career, Onassis found himself at odds with the Greek shipping establishment and it treated him as an outsider.

The most famous clash saw him quarrel with Manuel Kulukundis and the Greek shipowners’ council in New York over the allocation of Liberty vessels that transformed the fortunes of Greek shipping, struggling to recover from its losses during the Second World War.

Onassis had applied for 13 of the war-surplus freighters and got none. Despite marrying one of the daughters of Stavros Livanos, who was allocated a dozen Liberty vessels, he was viewed as an upstart — and, worse, a publicity hound.

In later years, some of the sting went out of the relationship, but Onassis was on warm terms only with a few of his peers. He was, however, no less of a Greek shipowner for doing things differently from the majority. His crews and almost all his key executives were Greek.

In 1975, the Greek-owned fleet consisted of about 50m gt and friendlier tax regulations had lately made a big difference to the Greek flag, which suddenly accounted for the vast majority of tonnage.

Today, the Greek-controlled fleet stands at more than 200m gt, with the vast majority of the vessels registered under foreign flags.

Today’s shipping landscape is vastly different to the one Onassis knew, being more stringently regulated with new, more sophisticated types of ships, such as liquefied natural gas carriers. Greek owners have been at the forefront of many of these changes.

However, for all that, Onassis would still see a number of his own traits and ideas writ large in the Greek shipping community of today.

Some of these include his compatriots’ new familiarity with more sophisticated financial structures, a widespread preference for bigger ships than the world average, and a greater engagement with public and social benefit than was the norm back then.

Lloyd's List Daily Briefing 29 May 2025

#AristotleOnassis #Tankers #Gas #SpecialReport #Europe #Greece #MarketInsight #VLCC