Figures
5.1 The architecture of the Onassis Group companies 98
5.2 The model of the Onassis shipping companies 110
5.3 The Onassis model. Ownership status and management of the Olympic Flame tanker 112
5.4 The Onassis shipping agencies worldwide, 1954–1975 114
6.1 The origin of the crews of the Onassis fleet in a sample of 27 ships, 1975, 1977 135
7.1 Tanker freight rates on the spot market, 1949–1975 144
7.2 The total gross income of Onassis’s companies, 1946–1974 159
10.1 Number of passengers on domestic and international routes, 1956–1965 224
10.2 Goods and luggage transported on domestic and international routes, 1956–1965 (tons) 225
10.3 Transport of domestic and international mail, 1956–1965 (tons) 225
10.4 Distribution of foreign visitors to Greece by nationality, 1964 236
10.5 Destinations of Greek migrants, 1955–1967 237
10.6 Number of passengers on domestic and international routes, 1964–1968 253
10.7 Goods and luggage transported on domestic and international routes, 1964–1968 253
12.1 Stays of Onassis in various places as percentages, in total for the period 1964–1974 280
13.1 Original will of Aristotle Onassis 324
13.2 Final division of Onassis fortune in two separate estates 324
13.3 50% of Onassis assets to Alexander S. Onassis Foundation 325
14.1 Basic levels of the classification diagram of the Onassis Archive 338
A1.1 The family of Charalambos Onassoglou and Gesthemane Antoniadou 342
A1.2 The family of Ioannis Onassis 344
A1.3 The family of Socrates Onassis 345
A1.4 The family of Vasileios Onassis 346
A1.5 The family of Alexander Onassis 347
A1.6 The family of Maria Onassis and Chrysostomos Konialidis 348
Maps
1.1 Αsia Minor – Moutalaski. The place of origin of the Onassoglou family. The Onassoglou brothers were established in Smyrna in the 1890s 7
6.1 The voyages of the tanker Armor, 1965–1966 138
10.1 Olympic Airways international destinations, 1957–1965 222
10.2 Olympic Airways domestic destinations, 1965 222
12.1 Voyages of the yacht Christina in the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, 1954–1974 294
12.2 Voyages of the yacht Christina in the central and western Mediterranean, 1954–1974 295
12.3 Voyages of the yacht Christina in the Caribbean 295
Images
1.1 Smyrna, a cosmopolitan city at the beginning of the 20th century 8
1.2 The Onassis family in Smyrna, c.1898 9
1.3 The destruction of Smyrna. Photograph from an Italian ship, 1/14 September 1922 11
1.4 The destruction of Smyrna. From the quay of Smyrna, on the road to refugeehood 11
1.5 S. Onassis Trading House and partner businesses 12
1.6 S. & O. Onassis Trading House. From Smyrna to Piraeus. Last letter from Smyrna 13
1.7 S. & O. Onassis Trading House. From Smyrna to Piraeus. First letter from Piraeus 14
1.8 Socrates Onassis, Smyrna 1898 15
1.9 Socrates Onassis and Penelope (Dologlou), the parents of Aristotle Onassis 16
1.10 Trade and financial activities of Socrates Onassis 17
1.11 Melantia (Karataş), the suburb of Smyrna where Aristotle Onassis grew up 18
1.12 The Argentinian passport of Aristotle Onassis, 1951 23
1.13 Photograph of Aristotle Onassis at about 20 years old 24
2.1 Letter from Aristotle Onassis to his sister Artemis Papanicolaou, Buenos Aires, 16 June 1924 28
2.2 Letter from Aristotle Onassis to his father Socrates Onassis, 26 December 1927 30
2.3 Onassis trading house, Buenos Aires, 29 December 1929 33
2.4 25 de Mayo Square, Buenos Aires in the interwar period 34
2.5 The first office in Buenos Aires at number 340, 25 de Mayo street, Buenos Aires; The office in Montevideo at number 1481, Missiones street, Montevideo 34
2.6 The Penelope Onassis in Buenos Aires, one of the first two steamships of Aristotle Onassis 36
2.7a The first ship of Aristotle Onassis. Cargo merchant ship “Onassis Socrates” purchased for 3,775 sterling pounds in May 1933 and registered in the Greek Ship Registry in November 1933 37
2.7b The second ship of Aristotle Onassis. Cargo merchant ship “Onassis Penelope” purchased for 3,775 sterling pounds in May 1933 and registered in the Greek Ship Registry in November 1933 37
2.8 The accident of the s/s Maria Onassis off the coast of Corsica in 1935 38
2.9 The sisters of Aristotle Onassis: Meropi Konialidi and Artemis Garofalidi 41
2.10 The sisters of Aristotle Onassis: Artemis Garofalidi, Calliroe Patronicola and Meropi Konialidi 41
2.11 The agreement with Saudi Arabia (In English and in Arabic) 49
3.1 Letter from Aristotle Onassis to his sister Artemis on headed paper with the “ASO Tobacco Co” logo, Buenos Aires, 17 October 1927 62
3.2 Trademark of the brand SUM, registered by Onassis in 1927 63
3.3 Trademark of the brand OSMAN, registered by Nikos Konialidis in 1927 63
3.4 Nikolaos Konialidis, 1938 66
3.5 Aristotle Onassis in Buenos Aires, c.1937 67
3.6 Nikolaos Konialidis in Buenos Aires, 1938. Nikolaos Konialidis stands next to the Chief of Police of Buenos Aires, General Esteban Vacarezza, and decorates “Argentinian philhellenes, senior police and port officials for their services to Greece” 71
3.7 Onassis flies by plane before the war, Paris, 1937 72
4.1 Marriage of Aristotle (Aristos) Onassis to Athena (Tina) Livanos, 29 December 1946 80
4.2 The “Onassiad”, the only text of A. Onassis that was published during his lifetime, written in 1947 and published in 1954 in 12 instalments in the Ethnikos Keryx, newspaper of Athens 82
4.3 The beginning of the surveillance by the FBI 86
4.4 The end of the surveillance by the FBI 87
5.1 The Minutes of the Boards of Directors 1939–1975 for the companies are comprised of 569 bound volumes and files, housed in the Onassis Business Archive 95
5.2 Statutes of Seaford Marine S.A. 102
5.3 Order of authorization by Aristotle Onassis by telegramme to another member of the Board of Directors of the Seaford Marine to act on his behalf 102
5.4 Share of the Panamanian company Seaford Marine S.A. 103
5.5 “Libros Diarios”, accounting books of Miraflores 105
5.6 Correspondence from Montevideo to Monte Carlo. In the correspondence between Montevideo and Monte Carlo, there was no company name on the Montevideo side and no logo, only ‘Constantino Konialidis’ appeared as the sender 107
6.1 Logo of the Onassis Company on the chimney of the tanker Tina Onassis 118
6.2 Nikos and Costas Konialidis on board of the yacht Christina. Nikos Konialidis, Costas Konialidis, Meropi Konialidis, Aristos Onassis. Artemis Garofalidis and Tina Onassis 120
6.3 Onassis’s confidants: Costas Konialidis, head of the Montevideo office, General Manager of Olympic Airways. First Vice-President Board of Directors of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation 121
6.4 Greek Community in Montevideo. Constantinos Konialidis was five times President of the Greek Community of Uruguay 121
6.5 St Nicholas Orthodox Church, Montevideo, Uruguay, donation of Costantine Konialidis, along with the Cultural Centre of the Community 121
6.6 The lawyers in Montevideo: Eduardo Albanell Mac Coll and his law degree from the University of Uruguay 122
6.7 Onassis’s confidants: Costas Gratsos, ‘Onassis’s best friend’, head of the New York office and engaged in studies for new projects which he planned with Onassis. Member of the first Board of Directors of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation 123
6.8 Onassis’s confidants: Nikolaos Kokkinis, second Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation 124
6.9 Nikolaos Kokkinis, head of the Monte Carlo office, on board of the Tina Onassis at its launching in 1956 124
6.10 Onassis’s confidants: Stelios Papadimitriou, President of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, 1988–2005. Stelios and Alexandra Papadimitriou, c. early 1960s 125
6.11 Stelios Papadimitriou, a lawyer, was engaged at the age of 24, in 1954, by Onassis in one of the group’s most difficult cases, and remained in the Onassis office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, until 1960 125
6.12 Launching of the tanker Alexander S. Onassis 128
6.13 Costas Vlassopoulos, head of the Chartering Dept, Monte Carlo office (and later member of the Board of Directors of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation), Christina Onassis, Mrs Peter Cajalet (godmother of the vessel), and Andreas Spyrou (head of Shipbuilding Dept in Monte Carlo) 128
6.14 Launching of the Tina Onassis, Hamburg 1953. Aristotle Onassis with the Ithacan team of experienced engineers and seamen 134
6.15 Captain Angelos Momongos 135
6.16 Launching of the Olympic Ice, 1954 136
6.17 Ithacan crews on the ship and in the office: first officer Dimitris Paizis, port captain Evgenios Romais, and captain Angelos Momongos on board the Olympic Sun, c.1957 137
6.18 Ithacan seamen on the funnel of the Tina Onassis, 1954 137
6.19 “Captain” Athena Pouliasi, wife of captain Jack Pouliasis, on board the tanker Tina Onassis, 1954; she taught English terminology to the trainee officers 139
6.20 Payroll of the tanker Olympic Accord, 1976 140
7.1 Launching of the Olympic Cloud, 25 March 1953. Adolf Westphal, manager of the German shipbuilders with Tina and Aristotle Onassis 145
7.2 Aristotle Onassis with Ludwig Erhard, 1953 146
7.3 Launching of the Tina Onassis, 25 July 1953 148
7.4 Launching of the tanker Al Malik Saud al Awal, 1954 149
7.5 Brochures of newly built vessels produced by the shipyards on the event of their launching 150
7.6 Launching of the Olympic Avenger, 219,447 dwt, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, St Nazaire, France 151
7.7 Onassis’s VLCC s. Olympic Adventure, 216.287 dwt, 1970, Hitachi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Japan; Olympic Anthem, 219.274 dwt, 1970, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France 152
7.8 Accommodation, dining and living rooms of the tanker Tina Onassis 154
7.9 Guaranty Agreement of A.S. Onassis for a loan in the Citibank 156
8.1 The cover of an anonymous manuscript album on whaling by the Onassis fleet 169
8.2 Mortgage agreement between Balleneros Limited S.A. and Citibank for a loan of 3,750,000 dollars for repairs 169
8.3 The floating factory Olympic Challenger sailing through the Kiel Canal 171
8.4 Schools of whales 175
8.5 Pulling a whale on to the vessel from the stern 176
8.6 The chase and the booty 179
8.7 Sizes and production 180
8.8 Processing the whale 181
8.9 Spotting whales by helicopter 182
8.10 Regions of the Antarctic for whaling 185
8.11 Towards the end of the season 186
9.1 Agreement between the Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, the Grace National Bank, the Victory Carriers and the Alexander S. Onassis Co. for the building of ships in American shipyards 198
9.2 Accounting book of Central American Steamship Agency, New York 207
10.1 The TAE air fleet that undertook in 1946 the administration of the national airlines 211
10.2 Karamanlis opening of Elliniko Eastern Airport, on 30 May 1962 214
10.3 Airplane departure from Elliniko airport 216
10.4 Olympic Office at Syntagma Square, Athens 217
10.5 Menelaos Tombras, member of the Board of Directors, and Costas Konialidis, Managing Director and mastermind of the organization and staffing of the Olympic Airways 218
10.6 Ioannis Georgakis, Executive Vice-President of Olympic Airways 219
10.7 Aristotle Onassis greeting the Olympic pilot Pavlos Ioannidis, 1962 220
10.8 Pavlos Ioannidis as executive in Olympic Airways, 1967 220
10.9 Tryphon Koutalidis 220
10.10 Comet 4B and passengers arrival in Sophia 224
10.11 Olympic sign in Vouliagmenis Str. to advertise the global coverage of Olympic Airlines 227
10.12 Advertisement campaign of Olympic Airways to attract foreign visitors 228
10.13 Educating the personnel in foreign languages 228
10.14 Air hostesses’ uniforms by foreign and Greek designers 229
10.15 Travel of the Greek Presidential Guard (Evzonoi) to New York 230
10.16 Louis Armstrong, Ingrid Bergman and Kirk Douglas in Olympic flights 231
10.17 Commercial transport: loading the airplane 233
10.18 Zappeion Exhibition: showing the global expansion of Olympic Airways 236
10.19 Onassis’s brother-in-law, Theodoros Garofalidis, President of the Olympic Airways Board of Directors, in a speech 240
10.20 Olympic Airways pilot 242
10.21 The new International Airport at Elliniko 244
10.22 The new Olympic Airways Depot at Elliniko 245
10.23 Boeing 727 of Olympic Airways 248
10.24 The gate of New York 250
10.25 The “christening” ceremony of Olympic Zeus, the first Boeing 747 of Olympic Airways 252
10.26 Montreal line, inauguration ceremony 254
10.27 Johannesburg line, inauguration ceremony 254
10.28 Inauguration ceremony of Olympic Aviation, 1971. Speech by Alexander Onassis 255
10.29 The Olympic Aviation fleet 255
10.30 Transport of patients with Piper airplanes 255
10.31 Alexander Onassis as pilot of Olympic Aviation 256
10.32 Aristotle and Alexander Onassis 256
12.1 Aristotle Onassis’s passport 279
12.2 Logbook of Christina 281
12.3 The first cruises of the yacht Christina, Chios, September 1954: Aristotle Onassis, Stavros Livanos, Calliroe Patronicola, Meropi Konialidi, Tina Onassis, Artemis Garofalidi and Theodoros Garofalidis 282
12.4 In Chios, September 1954: Aristotle Onassis and Theodoros Garofalidis 282
12Α.1 Notepaper of the yacht Christina 284
12Α.2 Crew list of the yacht Christina, 24 September 1974 286
12Α.3 Onassis with Pinnau on the first voyage of the yacht Christina, 1954 287
12Α.4 Sailing towards the Christina 288
12Α.5 Painting by Marcel Vertes in the yacht Christina 290
12Α.6 Yacht Christina 291
12Α.7 Yacht Christina 291
12Α.8 Before sailing in the first voyage of the yacht Christina, July 1954, Kiel 292
12.5 Skorpios, Onassis’s island 294
12.6 List of passengers of the yacht Christina 296
12.7 The guests of Onassis on Christina: Alexis Minotis with Aristotle Onassis and his sister Artemis (Onassis) Garofalidi 299
12.8 Winston Churchill on a cruise with the yacht Christina 300
12.9 Winston Churchill on a cruise with the yacht Christina. In Constantinople with Aristotle Onassis 301
12.10 Aristotle Onassis with Sophocles Venizelos, Chania 1962 303
12.11 Voyage of Aristotle Onassis at Chania with Greek politicians, 1962. At the middle George Papandreou 304
12.12 Constantinos Mitsotakis and Aristotle Onassis, 1966 305
12.13 Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas at the Memorial Service of Sophocles Venizelos, Chania 1966 306
12.14 Aristotle Onassis and Constantinos Karamanlis 307
12.15 Letter of Constantinos Karamanlis to Aristotle Onassis on 15 March 19(5)62 with which the prime minister declines the offer by Onassis to cover the dowry of Princess Sophia 308
12.16 Letter by Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, to Aristotle Onassis, 6 December 1968 310
12.17 Letter of Georges Pompidou, President of France, to Aristotle Onassis, 6 August 1969 311
12.18 Letter of Prince Rainier of Monaco to Aristotle Onassis, July 1961 312
12.19 Ingeborg Dedichen, the first partner (1934–1945). Voyage with tanker Ariston, 1938 314
12.20 Letter of Aristotle Onassis to his sister Artemis for the preparation of the voyage from Sweden to Japan with the tanker Ariston, Paris, March 1938 314
12.21 Tina Livanos, the first wife (1946–1959). Aristotle and Tina Onassis, Buenos Aires 1947 315
12.22 Aristotle, Tina, Alexander and Christina Onassis on board of the yacht Christina, Monte Carlo 1958 315
12.23 Maria Callas, the second partner of Aristotle Onassis, (1958–1968). In the launching of the tanker Olympic Chivalry, Kiel shipyards, 1964 316
12.24 Jackie Bouvier-Kennedy, the second wife (1968–1975). Jackie and Aristotle Onassis in a night club in Athens with the singer Vicky Moscholiou on the celebration of Alexander Onassis birthday, probably April 1970 317
12.25 Jackie Bouvier-Kennedy, the second wife (1968–1975). Jackie in Epidaurus, 1961 318
12.26 Aristotle Onassis in the 1930s 320
13.1 Instructions of Aristotle Onassis to his daughter Christina for after his death, 14 January 1974 323
13.2 The fleet after Onassis: tanker Olympic Loyalty (year of built 1993) 329
13.3 The renewal of the fleet after Onassis, tanker Olympic Loyalty II 330
14.1 Onassis Archive as delivered: boxes from New York 332
14.2 Onassis Archive as delivered: boxes from Montevideo 332
14.3 Onassis Archive as delivered: boxes from Monte Carlo 332
14.4 Transportation of boxes in the first working place 333
14.5 Transfer of content to new working boxes 334
14.6 Recording of content and first numeric filing 335
14.7 Processing of content and assignment of code numbers 339
14.8 Archive filing 339
14.9 Packing in antioxidant storage containers 340
14.10 Onassis Archive: antioxidant storage containers 341