Onassis made two kinds of bets. First, he bought assets when other owners were forced to sell. Second, he built for where the market was going, not where it was.
Move 1: ships at the bottom of the Depression
In 1932 the Canadian National Steamship Company was in severe financial trouble. Onassis bought six of its freighters for $20,000 each, about $120,000 in total. A 1950s profile says that was roughly one percent of their cost, and another places their original worth at about $12 million, which fits. Both are old press accounts, so treat the one percent as approximate. What is certain is that he paid a small fraction of the original price, with money from his tobacco business.
Move 2: the first tanker
Onassis had his first tanker built in Sweden at the end of the 1930s. Sources give 1938 or 1939. During the war he leased his ships to the Allies, and afterward he bought 23 Liberty ships when the Ships Sales Act of 1946 released surplus vessels onto the market.
Move 3: build bigger
The standard tanker of the day, the T-2, carried about 16,600 deadweight tons. Onassis commissioned a 28,500-ton ship, one of the first supertankers, and later the 45,000-ton Tina Onassis. A CIA analysis of his postwar success says he saw that the big oil companies were cautious about building too many tankers themselves, which left room for independent owners.
The payoff
When Egypt closed the Suez Canal in 1956, his large tankers carried oil around Africa instead. One biography says he reportedly earned an extra $1 million a day during the crisis. The number is a report, not an audited figure.
A fair caveat
“Buy at the bottom” only works if you have cash when others do not and the nerve to hold. Onassis had both thanks to the tobacco profits. The war also froze many ships for years. And not every bargain was clean: the postwar surplus purchases led to the 1953 U.S. case described in Part 2.
Five lessons to take away
- Keep cash for a downturn. Bargains go to the buyer who can pay immediately.
- Buy what is out of favor but still useful. The ships still carried cargo.
- Own the asset that fits the next phase. He moved from cargo ships to tankers as oil demand grew.
- Be early on scale. Bigger ships were a risk until they became the standard.
- Expect disruption to pay. Crises such as Suez reward flexible fleets.
For a family office
A liquidity reserve lets a family act when markets are stressed. The risk is concentration: one industry, one asset type, one crisis. These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.