ABSTRACT
In the early 1950s Aristotle Onassis, one of shipping’s most colourful entrepreneurs, hatched a plan to take over the transport of Saudi Arabia’s oil. On 20 January 1954 he signed the ‘Jiddah Agreement’ with the Saudi Finance Minister, establishing the Saudi Arabian Maritime Company (SAMCO) to ship Saudi oil. Initially Onassis was to supply 500,000 tons of tankers, and as the ARAMCO (the US-controlled Saudi oil concession) fleet became obsolete, SAMCO would replace their ships with its own. In May King Saud ratified the treaty and Onassis’ biggest tanker, launched in Germany, was named the Al Malik Saud Al-Awa in his honour.
