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Niarchos soon had other troubles to contend with. Brother-in-law Onassis, who was then having trouble chartering all his ships, made a deal with King Saud to start a Saudi Arabian merchant marine that might ultimately have turned the independents' richest market into Onassis' private domain. Infuriated, Niarchos accused his brother-in-law of trying to monopolize the charter business, successfully teamed up with oilmen and other shipowners to make Onassis back down; the indignant oil companies might even have boycotted Onassis out of business if a tanker shortage had not developed. Shrugged Onassis: "Niarchos gets mad because I move in and sew up a deal while he's still thinking about it." Growled a Niarchos aide: "Whenever we start to cultivate something, a rotten mushroom springs up in the flower patch. It's always Onassis."
Despite the Greek tradition that bat-zanakia (men who marry sisters) should act like brothers, Niarchos and Onassis went on feuding. When Onassis bought the Monte Carlo Casino, he borrowed part of the purchase price from Niarchos. Though Casino stock has since soared, Niarchos complained bitterly that Onassis refused to repay him more than his original contribution, has taken the dispute to an arbitrator.
At times the rivalry reaches ludicrous extremes. After Niarchos bought the world's biggest privately owned sailing ship, Onassis had a 325-ft. destroyer escort converted into "the world's most luxurious yacht," with a seaplane on the stern. But the feud is not so bitter that the brothers-in-law refuse a chance to make money together. After months of outbidding one another for Greek government permission to build a $24 million drydock in Piraeus, Niarchos recently proposed to undertake the project in partnership with Onassis, with father-in-law Li-vanos as a third partner. The batzanakia are also engaged in a struggle to buy control of T.A.E., Greece's national airline.
Though the airline has only one weary DC-4 in international service, both Niarchos and Onassis hope to take advantage of its reciprocal landing rights to start flights to the U.S. As a Greek acquaintance observed: "Niarchos and Onassis might have gone far as partners—but not as far as they have gone as rivals." Cape y. Canal. In the supertanker contest, there is plenty of room for Niarchos, Onassis and all the other Argonauts.
A recent Chase Manhattan Bank survey estimated that free-world oil consumption will increase 73.7% by 1965. By then the free world will be drawing 8.3 million bbls. a day—nearly as much as the U.S.
now produces—from the Middle East. In the past few years the oil companies have leaped into the race, by 1960 will have 172 supertankers in commission, only nine fewer than the independents.
For several reasons, tankers are unlikely to keep growing in size indefinitely.
Since the Suez Canal is only 35 ft. deep, it is too shallow for even a 40,000-ton tanker to pass with a full load. Another major obstacle for supertankers today is that the average U.S. port is only 39.6 ft.
deep, 5 ft. too shallow for any fully loaded tanker over 32,000 tons. As a result, supertankers are forced to discharge up to one-third of their loads onto lighters before entering most ports, e.g., Philadelphia, terminal point for 41% of all world oil shipments.