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Boat of the Week: This Historic 325-Foot Superyacht Hosted JFK, Winston Churchill, and Elizabeth Taylor

Christina o , owned by aristotle onassis, has a rich past that includes visits by prime ministers and presidents, love affairs with famous opera singers, and 42 phone lines. it is now available for charter., julia zaltzman, julia zaltzman's most recent stories.

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It wasn’t always a glamorous superyacht . The vessel started out as Canadian Navy Frigate,  HMCS Stormont , built in 1943 by Vickers of Montreal. It played an active role in World War II. In 1952, Onassis acquired it for $34,000 as part of a block purchase of ten ships that he intended to convert into a fleet of whaling vessels. When plans fell through, he kept Stormont for himself, spending $4 million (or about $46 million in today’s dollars) to convert it into a luxury superyacht—the first true gigayacht. He lengthened the hull by 29 feet and named it Christina after his daughter.

No expense was spared for its rebirth. Powered by steam engines that delivered a top speed of 21 knots, the yacht was equipped with five fast launches, a glass-bottomed boat for underwater observation, a small dinghy, two kayaks, a Fiat 500, and a five-seater Piaggio P.136L-2. (This was the same seaplane that crashed in 1973, killing Onassis’s 24-year-old son Alexander.)

Christina was one of the few yachts of its time to have an elevator, not to mention a surgical operating theater with radiography equipment. The mosaiced swimming pool also broke molds, with a minotaur-themed lifting floor that converted into a dance floor.

A close-knit group of Onassis’s friends and family partied alongside powerful figures and stars of the silver screen, including Marilyn Monroe, Margot Fonteyn, Frank Sinatra, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds and Paul Getty. Ex-King Farouk of Egypt referred to the yacht as “the height of opulence.” The guests were entertained in reception lounges that are now famous with whispered stories.

The wood-paneled Jackie O Lapis Lounge on the main deck—named after a lapis-lazuli fireplace rumored to have cost a princely sum of one dollar per square centimeter—is stocked with rare books and a self-playing electric piano. The fake El Grecos that Onassis hung during his ownership—“If people want to believe they are authentic, why spoil their pleasure,” he once quipped—have been switched for real masterpieces by Renoir, Le Corbusier and Chirico.

Adjacent is Ari’s Bar where orca teeth serve as armrests for stools and are engraved with scenes from Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey . Wood from a sunken Spanish galleon was used for the bar. On the walls hang portraits of John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, all guests aboard the boat.

Christina was also a place where Onassis conducted business, thanks to the network of 42 telephone lines across the boat. John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill had their first encounter on the yacht. Britain’s wartime Prime Minister enjoyed eight voyages between 1958 and 1965 and was the only guest for whom Onassis gave up his own suite. The Library is named in his honor.

The 16 additional guest cabins are named after and inspired by Greek islands. The Ithaca suite was Christina’s cabin, which she surrendered to Greta Garbo, Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy (prior to her marriage to Onassis in 1975) whenever they visited. They each feature wood, marble and gold bathroom fittings. The pastel color schemes were selected by Jackie O, who was renowned for her restoration of the White House.

Maria Callas embarked on a nine-year-long love affair with Onassis in 1959. The Maria Callas Lounge contains her original grand Steinway piano. Her wedding rings from her first marriage and a solid silver Tiffany dish presented to her by JFK are displayed by the entrance, and the entire collection of her operatic recordings are available to play. For film nights, there is a remote-controlled projector.

After Onassis’ death in 1975, his daughter gifted the boat to the Greek government and a slow deterioration ensued. In 1999, a new owner, Onassis family friend John Paul Papanicolaou, undertook a sizable refit estimated at $50 million that replaced 65 percent of the steel hull. He also renamed the vessel Christina O .

Subsequent refit work from 2016 to 2018 added an aft deck bimini system and a boarding platform for easier guest transfers. Two sets of Vosper stabilizer fins were installed, along with cold rooms, an incineration chamber and garbage compactor for the lower deck galley. A split-level Jacuzzi deck now overlooks a bar and large dining table with intricate marquetry inlays depicting the tales of Ulysses.

A pair of restored mahogany HackerCraft tenders sit alongside original features, such as the circular staircase with its onyx and silver handrail, vintage wall lights and leather settees.

The vessel has recently been a case of life imitating art. Christina O played a starring role in the Netflix series  The Crown and 2022 comedy  Triangle of Sadness . The 1956 wedding reception held on board for Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly was echoed in 2019 when supermodel Heidi Klum was married on board. Most recently, Rupert Murdoch chartered the yacht in July for a family reunion in Positano, Italy.

Other amenities include a spa with two full-time therapists forming part of the 38 crew and a chest of water toys, including an inflatable slide and Flyboard. Those weren’t toys that were available when Onassis acquired the vessel and turned it into a superyacht, but one imagines he would’ve approved.

Christina O can be chartered around $768,500 per week with Morley Yachts.

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Christina O

• Amenities & Toys
• Rates & Regions
• + Shortlist

CHRISTINA O YACHT CHARTER

99.14m  /  325'3   canadian vickers   1943 / 2020.

• Previous Yacht

Cabin Configuration

• 14 Convertible

Special Features:

• Iconic superyacht
• Mosaic swimming pool turns into dancefloor
• Original features faithfully restored
• English country manor house style
• Glamorous bar

CHRISTINA O is one of the most iconic motor yachts ever launched, best known for her grand interiors and unrivalled level of luxurious amenities.

The 99.15m/325'4" 'Christina O' classic yacht built by shipyard Canadian Vickers is available for charter for up to 34 guests in 17 cabins. This yacht features interior styling by Apostolos Molindris & Associates.

Onassis epitomised the life of the superyacht elite, garnering a reputation as the original jetsetter, but following his death in 1975, Christina O fell into disrepair. Luckily, a meticulous restoration project led by a family friend of Onassis was completed in 2001 and, today, charterers can enjoy the resonance of her unique past with the ultimate in luxurious accommodation and on-board service.   

For refined luxury and elegance, look no further than classic yacht Christina O. Offering an array of sumptuous living areas coupled with superb amenities, you'll feel like Hollywood royalty aboard this spectacular vessel. She has sensational features such as a dancefloor, beauty salon, spa, elevator and gym.

Exterior Design

Styled in the early fifties by Caesar Pinnau, the exterior of Christina O easily stands out among other superyachts on today’s charter market thanks to her distinctive clipper bow, long sheer line, rounded superstructure and dazzling white topsides, and this is not forgetting her trademark, vibrant yellow funnel. A variety of vast open-air spaces across Christina O offer a multitude of options for lounging and socialising. The top level of the yacht, known as the compass deck, is well-primed for sunning, with a line of chaise loungers and a bar, while the spacious promenade deck below features an aft spa pool, and alfresco dining and bar setup. Most impressive is the main deck, where Onassis’ swimming pool has been faithfully restored with its renowned Minoan bull and vaulter mosaic. What’s more, the bottom of the pool can be raised to form a dance floor.

Interior Design

Christina O’s expansive interior was completely gutted during her most recent refit, with notable artefacts salvaged and sensitively restored. Aftermost on the main deck is the Lapis Lounge, named after its original lapis fireplace, which remains in place, and decorated in the style of an English country manor house. The main deck is also home to a dining salon with a 24-seater table, and the Aris Bar, which boasts its original rope-covered bar, whale fang bar handles and whale-skin bar stools. A majestic atrium with a striking mosaic of the Onassis omega logo then allows guests to access the two further salons on the promenade deck above via a spiral staircase.

Guest Accommodation

Known as the Onassis Suite, the yacht’s master stateroom stretches across the forward section of the bridge deck and comprises three rooms: large sleeping quarters, a white Penteli marble bathroom and a book-lined study. The latter is oak-panelled and boasts the original onyx fireplace, while the bedroom is illuminated by authentic Baccarat crystal wall lights, adding to its elegance.  The other accommodation on board comprises 10 double staterooms on the main deck forward and eight convertible cabins on the lower deck.

Onboard Comfort & Entertainment

As well as her impressive lounging and dining facilities, Christina O also features a unique variety of leisure and entertainment facilities, particularly on her promenade deck. These include an oak-panelled library with green upholstered chairs and settees, and a huge saloon, boasting three large seating areas. This space can also serve as a ballroom, with a raised dais for the orchestra, as well as a cinema thanks to a drop-down screen and state-of-the-art sound system. There is also a glass-panelled gymnasium on board and a music room with a Steinway piano where the likes of Maria Callas and Frank Sinatra once performed.

Performance & Range

Built with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, she offers greater on-board space and is more stable when at anchor thanks to her full-displacement hull. Powered by twin MAN engines, she comfortably cruises at 14 knots, reaches a maximum speed of 19 knots with a range of up to 5,000 nautical miles from her 329,000 litre fuel tanks at 10 knots. An on board stabilization system ensures comfort when underway.

Set against the backdrop of your chosen cruising ground, you and your guests can enjoy fun on the water with the collection of water toys and accessories aboard Christina O. Principle among these is a Flyboard which is a must for any self-respecting thrill-seeker, prepare for supersize thrills - even beginners will enjoy the thrill of swooping skywards and ‘dolphining’ back into the water. Additionally, there is a waterslide bringing a sense of fun that all the family can enjoy. Take to the sea on a Jet Ski offering you power and control on the water. If that isn't enough Christina O also features towable toys, kayaks, paddleboards and snorkelling equipment. Christina O features four tenders, but leading the pack is a Hacker Craft Limo Tender to transport you in style.

Why Charter Christina O

One of the most iconic superyachts available for charter, Christina O is distinctly steeped in stories of the rich and famous, who have once graced her decks. She is an ideal choice for those looking for an opulent charter vacation, enhanced with the ambience of a magnificent past. Plus, capable of accommodating 36 guests, she is perfect for larger parties set to experience the extraordinary lifestyle of the Onassis years.

Christina O and her crew are available for charter this summer for cruising within Bermuda and the Caribbean. She is also accepting bookings this winter on request.

Experience the magical places, food and experiences of the Mediterranean this summer from the luxury of your own classic yacht. Christina O, her captain and talented crew are ready to make sure that your yachting experience is like nothing else.

TESTIMONIALS

There are currently no testimonials for Christina O, please provide .

Christina O Photos

Amenities & Entertainment

For your relaxation and entertainment Christina O has the following facilities, for more details please speak to your yacht charter broker.

Christina O is reported to be available to Charter with the following recreation facilities:

• 1 x Hacker Craft Varnished Wood Limo Tender with 1 x Volvo 250 HP engine
• 1 x Zodiac Medline 3 RIB with 2 x 150 HP engines
• 1 x Zodiac Medline 2 RIB

For a full list of all available amenities & entertainment facilities, or price to hire additional equipment please contact your broker.

• + shortlist

For a full list of all available amenities & entertainment facilities, or price to hire additional equipment please contact your broker.

APPROVED RYA WATER SPORTS CENTRE

Your family and friends could learn to use the water toys on your charter vacation onboard this luxury charter yacht. Motor Yacht Christina O is a certified RYA Training Centre yacht.

'Christina O' Charter Rates & Destinations

Summer Season

May - September

€700,000 p/week + expenses Approx $774,000

High Season

€740,000 p/week + expenses Approx $818,500

Cruising Regions

Bermuda Caribbean Antigua, Bahamas, Cuba, Saint Martin, St Barts Mediterranean Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Turkey

HOT SPOTS:   Amalfi Coast, Corsica, French Riviera, Ibiza, Mykonos, Sardinia, The Balearics, Virgin Islands

Winter Season

October - April

Please enquire .

Charter Christina O

To charter this luxury yacht contact your charter broker , or we can help you.

To charter this luxury yacht contact your charter broker or

On Board Review

As the former vessel of billionaire shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, the legendary 99m/325ft superyacht ‘Christina O’ set the scene for the original jetsetters of the late-1950s and, today, continues to be among the most world’s most famous yachts.

Follow in the footsteps of the original jet-setters aboard Christina O

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CHRISTINA O Yacht – Paradise-like $40M Superyacht

Conceptualized by Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate, the Christina O entertained the stars of the 20th century.

Onassis hosted the likes of Winston Churchill, Grace Kelly, and Elizabeth Taylor. The $40 million yacht hosted legendary parties, scandals, and luxury on the first personal yacht.

CHRISTINA O yacht interior

After World War II, Onassis bought the River-class frigate and spent $4 million converting the vessel into a luxurious superyacht named after his daughter.

The opulence reflected his tastes, with a Minotaur-themed mosaic swimming pool that could be raised into a dance floor once drained.

Ari’s Bar had barstools upholstered with the foreskins of whales, with whales’ teeth as the footrests and ivory armrests.

The bathrooms were in marble, and the fittings were in gold. The fireplace in the famous Lapis Lazuli lounge was encrusted in lapis lazuli.

Illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans designed and painted the children’s dining room. When Onassis died, his daughter donated the boat to the Greek government, which let the masterpiece go to rot.

In 1999, she was bought back from the Greek government by John Paul Papanicolaou and completely gutted.

The CHRISTINA O yacht was refitted with replicas of the lavish features Onassis was so proud of. The interior of the yacht reflects an English country manor house style.

During the refit, more accommodation was added to the vessel. The staterooms are smaller compared to 21st-century yachts. CHRISTINA O has a master suite and 17 passenger staterooms.

She can accommodate 34 guests on board and 39 crew. A spiral staircase connects the many indoor and outdoor living spaces.

She lacks the indoor boat storage that is now standard on superyachts, but she has many living areas, and the deck space is very generous.

She also features a glass-paneled gym, a music room, and other luxury amenities. The compass deck features areas for lounging and sunbathing, while the deck below, called the promenade deck, had an aft spa pool and dining area.

She also has a tender garage filled with toys for fun on the water.

CHRISTINA O yacht exterior

Canadian Vickers built the CHRISTINA O yacht in 1943. She served in Normandy during WWII but later became a surplus relic.

Onassis bought the vessel for her scrap value. Onassis charged the Howaldt Shipyard in Germany with creating the lavish personal yacht.

Caesar Pinnau, a German professor of architecture, created classic lines and a high stern for the new and improved CHRISTINA O.

The classic yellow funnel remains to this day. While the yacht retains some of her rugged exteriors, she appears low-slung and eye-catching in the water.

CHRISTINA O yacht specifications

With a length of 99.1m, the CHRISTINA O yacht has a beam of 11.12m and a draft of 4.24m.

She has a volume of 1802 gross tons; she has a top speed of 19 knots and a cruising speed of 14 knots. Her MAN engines give her a range of 5000 nautical miles.

She was one of the first boats to fit an onboard stabilization system for guests’ comfort.

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Aristotele Onassis’ Legendary Christina O Megayacht Is Available for Rent

Maria Callas, Jacqueline Kennedy and Winston Churchill are just some of the guests that have climbed aboard the Christina O, an ultra-luxurious ship that’s now for rent (and spotted in Italy)

Spotted this summer on various occasions in Italy between Ischia and Capri, the extra luxurious Christina O megayacht has no competition when it comes to history, wonder and elegance. Once belonging to Aristotele Onassis, Christina O is a luxurious yacht stretching 99.1 meters with a unique past.

Christina O was one of the first examples of refitting thanks to the far-sighted vision of the Greek magnate, who in 1954, reconverted the HMCS Stormont — a River Class frigate of the Canadian Navy launched in 1943 — into one of the largest and most luxurious mega yachts of all time . Refitting is simply the renovation of a ship or boat; subjects chosen for these projects are often particular yachts that, although dated, damaged or even partially destroyed, have no reproductions. The result of this renovation in yacht design amplifies the diversity and uniqueness of the object so that the final ship could almost be considered a work of art.

The HMCS Stormont, which was decommissioned after the war, was purchased by Aristotele Onassis for $34,000 and renamed after his own daughter, Christina. The Christina O, following a refitting that cost around four million dollars, was the most elegant and most technological private yacht of its time , coming to symbolize the power of the Onassis family. On board were bathrooms with golden faucets and ivory handles, a fireplace encrusted with precious stones, sinks in lapis lazuli, and a bathtub inspired by the mythical Minos, King of Crete. To decorate its interiors were Louis XIV furnishings and museum-worthy works of art, including a Rubens, an El Greco and a Renoir. The yacht featured 18 cabins that all took the names of Greek islands, with sizes varying from 16 to 26 square meters, while the Onassis master suite, clad with Venetian stuccos, measured 75 square meters.

Several innovations present on board Christina O are still used — and occasionally even advertised as novelties — on luxury yachts seen today. For example, in the stern area of the main deck sits an outdoor pool with mosaic floors, which after pressing a button turns into a dance floor (a famous photo pictures Aristotele Onassis and Winston Churchill in this area). The observation deck was equipped with a platform for landing helicopters, and on the occasion of ceremonies, internal spaces could host around 100 guests, arriving up to 250 using the outdoor areas.

After Onassis’ death in 1975, the ship was inherited by his daughter Christina, who in 1978 donated it to the Greek government as a representative yacht. In 1998, it was purchased by John Paul Papanicolaou, a family friend of the Onassis family, who from 1999 to 2001, made further modernizations, updating contemporary comforts and stylistic choices without altering its identity and even maintaining the name.

Over the years, numerous celebrities have climbed aboard the extraordinary Christina O megayacht, including Maria Callas, Jacqueline Kennedy, Marylin Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, and the previously-mentioned Winston Churchill.

The yacht is currently available to charter and can host 34 people in 17 cabins. It’s managed by diverse charter companies that propose various itineraries for a cruise through history, navigating the Costa Azzurra, Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Saudi Arabia for €630,000 per week.

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Christina Onassis, Shipping Magnate, Dies at 37

By Wolfgang Saxon

• Nov. 20, 1988

Christina Onassis, the head of a family business empire and stepdaughter of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, died of a heart attack while visiting friends in Argentina yesterday, according to local news reports from Buenos Aires. She was 37 years old.

The reports said Ms. Onassis had been staying with childhood friends at an exclusive country club outside the Argentine capital. Her father, Aristotle Onassis, laid the foundation of his self-made fortune in shipping, real estate and high finance in Argentina and was a dual citizen of that country and Greece.

Mr. Onassis died in 1975 in France and his daughter and only surviving child was left in charge of the Onassis Group, with assets then variously estimated at $500 million to $1 billion, most of it in shipping. Forbes magazine, citing a worldwide slump in that industry, reported in 1987 that the figure probably had shrunk to $250 million or less.

Mr. Onassis' two major shipping companies were Springfield Shipping of New York City and Olympic Maritime of Monte Carlo.

A native New Yorker, Ms. Onassis gave up her American citizenship. She learned about business and finance in the New York offices of her father, beginning as a 20-year-old secretary. After his death, she gradually strengthened her hold over the Onassis Group, although some questions remained in the late 1970's as to just how much control she exerted and how much she left to day-to-day managers.

One of the world's richest women, Miss Onassis was no stranger to personal misfortune. There was the death of her only brother, Alexander, in a private-plane crash in 1973. She herself went through four much-publicized marriages and divorces. Churchill and Callas

The social life on ''Ari'' Onassis' 325-foot yacht, named Christina, was legendary and included the likes of Winston Churchill and the soprano Maria Callas. In fact, Mr. Onassis was romantically linked with Miss Callas when his own marriage to the former Athina (Tina) Livanos, another shipping heiress, broke up in 1959.

Tina Onassis eventually was remarried to her former husband's arch rival, Stavros Niarchos. And Ari Onassis, in 1968, married Mrs. Kennedy, the widow of President John F. Kennedy, whom he first met in 1963.

Christina Onassis defied her father in 1971 by marrying Joseph Bolker, a millionaire home builder and real-estate man, A divorced father of four, he was 27 years her senior and the union broke up within months, apparently at the insistence of her father.

Her next marriage, strongly promoted by her father, took place shortly after his death. Her second husband was Alexander Andreadis, a Greek shipping and banking heir. It, too, lasted only 14 months.

Miss Onassis' third marriage, in Moscow in 1978 to Sergei Kauzov, a Soviet shipping agent, again made front-page headlines, as did her flight to Greece a few days later and their separation in 1979. Marries Frenchman

She married a French businessman, Thierry Roussel, in 1984 and had a daughter with him, Athina, the following January. They filed for divorce eight months later.

Ms. Onassis was said to have never felt close to her stepmother. Friends in Athens said Mr. Onassis was thinking of divorcing the former Mrs. Kennedy at the time of his death and had intended to limit a divorce settlement to $3 million rather than the $250,000 a year provided in his will.

The reports of a forthcoming divorce were denied by Christina, who in 1977 was said to have made a much more generous multi-million settlement in return for which Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dropped all further claims against the estate.

Aristotle Onassis - Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης

Ari Onassis was a business partner but above all a very good friend of mine for many years until his death in 1975. It was great to know him and fantastic to be involved in his odyssey and contributes to build his empire. There are so many things that are said about Ari and by creating this blog I want to reflect the reality about him to make sure his memory is not stained by gossiping people that don't know anything about him. You can also view my website:

www.olympicvessels.com

Aristotle Onassis & Jackie Kennedy

• Onassis Business Structure
• Onassis Skorpios Island
• Onassis Yacht Christina O
• The Onassis Diamonds
• Onassis & Churchill
• Onassis vs Niarchos
• Life on the Christina O
• Onassis Photobook
• Athina Onassis
• Onassis & Callas
• Sale of Skorpios Island
• Onssis Short Story 1
• Onassis Short Story 2
• Oil Tankers
• Onassis Childhood
• Onassis Legacy
• The Life of Aristotle Onassis
• The Foundation
• Christina Onassis
• Christina O
• Aristotle Onassis & Jackie Kennedy

Saturday, April 01, 2017

Onassis yacht - christina "o" - the legend.

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clock This article was published more than  46 years ago

Christina's World

Lonely Luxuries and Empty Elegance in the Capitalist Kingdom A Life of Lonely Luxuries and Empty Elegance

CHRISTINA ONASSIS HAS HAD more luxury in her life than most princesses, even most queens, ever imagine, let alone experience.

The first house she lived in was one of the most celebrated in Europe: the Chateau de la Croe, on 25 magnificent acres in the south of France at Cap d'Antibes between Nice and Cannes. It had formerly been the home and summer palace of such renowned royalty as King Leopold of Belgium, King Umberto of Italy and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Christina was only a baby when her father, Aristotle Onassis, then 45, and her 21-year-old mother, Tina Livanos Onassis, moved there in the spring of 1951.

As soon as they occupied the mansion, Onassis hired an extensive staff and a "manager" to take charge of his household affairs, feeling that his wife Tina was too young and inexperienced to cope successfully with the responsibilities of so large and grand a mansion. Onassis wanted Tina to spend as much time as possible with Christina and her older brother Alexander.

Onassis himself, constantly jetting around the world in his multinational business negotiations, was rarely at home and when he was, he had little interest in his young children. Although Tina loved them, she often traveled with her husband: whale hunting in the Antarctic; launching a new freighter in Germany; skiing at St. Moritz; partying in Paris. The two youngsters were usually left at home under the care of the two dozen servants who worked at the chateua.

Christina was given everything she wanted, and was spoiled and pampered by all of the help. The chateau had acres of grounds to romp across, huge stretches of manicured lawns upon which parties were held for Christina and her friends, with enough magicians, clowns, toys and games to fill a circus.

There was an Olympic-sized swimming pool, numerous fountains and gardens, and the property ran directly down to the sea for playing on the beach and in the surf. Christina and Alexander had a variety of pets - a great dane, two French poodles, a horse, a goose and two gazelles (which were a gift from King Saud of Saudi Arabia, a controversial business associate of her father's).

Whenever Tina and Onassis were in residence at the chateau, Christina was allowed, during the early evenings, to attend some of the parties and festivities that her parents constantly hosted. Their guest lists included celebrated people from the worlds of business, royalty and entertainment. J. Paul Getty, Cary Grant, Lily Pons, Claudette Colbert, Merle Oberon, Gene Tierney and Prince Rainier were among those who frequently attended, and Christina would speak with them in French or English.

Oddly, she was never formally taught Greek and could only manage a few words of her father's language. (Her mother had been educated mostly in London, and she and Onassis tended to converse in English or in French).

As Christina grew older, there were other fabled homes, other luxuries: a penthouse on the fashionable Avenue Foch in Paris; a ranch in Montevideo, Uruguay; a townhouse on Sutton Place in Manhattan; a villa on the outskirts of Athens; her father's own private island, the storybook Skorpios, in the middle of the Ionian Sea. Ultimately, Christina would spend most of her time on the world's most palatial yacht, the Christina, a floating Xanadu named in her honor by Onassis.

Life aboard the sleek, white Christina was so opulent and glamorous that it seems more a tale of fiction than fact. Christina's playroom had murals of Parisian fantasy scenes, painted by Bemelmans. There were tiny electric automobiles for her and her brother to ride in around the spotless decks, hobby horses and a tiny electric organ to play with. But except for her brother, there was little opportunity to play with other children aboard ship, so Christina grew up very much in adult society.

Christina attended a round of exclusive schools: Miss Hewitt's classes in Manhattan; private boarding schools in Paris and London.

In the latter, Christina was often the only student who didn't actually live at the school; instead, she was driven there and picked up every day by a chauffeured limousine. This unusual situation kept her apart from her schoolmates, increasing a certain loneliness and aloofness that pervaded her personality. She was not a popular student and had few friends.

Her real learning came from the traveling she was exposed to, and from the influence of her father and his friends. Sitting on the sidelines, Christina would remain silent and totally alert, listening to the conversations around her. Her father spent hours at a time talking politics and philosophy with Churchill. Sometimes Richard Burton held forth on Shakespeare, or Gianni Agnelli of the Fiat dynasty argued with Onassis about business, money and governments.

Like her father, Christina had a relentlessly active mind, but in her adolescent years she lacked his charm and personality, and his self-confidence. Nonetheless, constantly sailing the seven seas, schooled in several languages, through exposure and osmosis she learned the nuances of both high society and high finances. Though her mother was fair and pretty, Christina had inherited her father's darker complexion and larger features. Not a beautiful little girl, she grew prettier as she grew up, and with the help of plastic surgery to straighten her "Greek" nose, she became a pleasant-looking young woman, given to simple clothes and very little jewelry.

Although Onassis was never known to have refused his daughter any request or favor ("Chrsyo Mou," he would call her, "my golden one"), he made it clear to her on numerous occasions that he would only give his permission - when she was ready to contemplate marriage - for her to wed a fellow Greek.

He went even further than that. Following the traditional custom, he selected the man he considered to be a perfect husband: Peter Goulandris. Although Goulandris was an eligible bachelor, young, good-looking and Harvard-educated, none of these attributes mattered to Onassis.

He selected Goulandris because he was Greek, and because his family controlled a number of shipping companies, amounting to billions of dollars, and Onassis had ideas of uniting his family with the Goulandris clan and thereby establishing a great shipping dynasty. There was only one thing wrong with the plan. Because her father insisted that the marriage must take place, Christina flatly refused. She was continuously pressured by her father to relent and marry Goulandris. When he realized he couldn't change her mind, Onassis enlisted the help of his sister, Artemis, and, eventually, that of his new wife and Christina's stepmother, Jacqueline Kennedy, who attempted to be a matchmaker for her stepdaughter, flying all over the Greek islands to hold secret meetings with the Goulandris family, and attempting to talk Christina into the union. It was all to no avail.

The more pressure that was exerted upon Christina, the more she backed away. She began spending more time away from Skorpios and the Christina, away from her father and Jackie, and one day in Monaco, at the swimming pool of the Hotel Metropole, she met a divorced 47-year-old Los Angeles real estate broker by the name of Joseph Bolker. Christina was 20.

Bolker, although old enough to be her father, seemed to be everything that Onassis was not; he neither smoked nor drank, he was a health enthusiast, and his manner was relaxed, calm and quiet.

Within a few days, the two flew to Los Angeles and, without consulting Onassis, announced their impending marriage.

Onassis immediately dispatched Alexander to Los Angeles with instructions to "talk sense" into his sister. When she heard her father's objections, particularly to the difference in their ages, Christina retorted: "Father was over 20 years older than mother when they married. And I love him and will marry him!"

Onassis continued to hope his daughter would change her mind. Despite his threats and entreaties, however, Christina married Bolker on July 29, 1971, in Las Vegas. Onassis was further incensed because Bolker was Jewish. He was concerned that the "guilt by association" he would gain from having a Jewish son-in-law would rupture the delicate Arabian oil connections that were so instrumental to his shipping business.

Onassis cut off all communication with Christina. When she phoned him, he told an assistant: "Make it very clear that I am in . . . but not to her." He also immediately began to make arrangements to cut off Christina's $100 million trust fund.

According to Bolker, he and Christina were put under "extraordinary pressures" by the Onassis family. Just before her 21st birthday, Christina flew to London and attempted to invite her father to attend a party that Bolker was going to have for her in Los Angeles. Usually sentimental about birthdays and holidays, Onassis was intransigent.

But Bolker was beginning to give way. "Christina is a young woman and should not be alienated from her family," he told a journalist. And the Beverly Hills lifestyle was not for Christina. She was bored and missed her family; she longed most to see her father.

Through the pressures of family and friends, and eventually with the enthusiastic consent of Bolker himself, the marriage was dissolved after nine months.

Onassis couldn't have been happier, and rewarded his pet daughter with a whirlwind trip around the world. For the moment, the Onassis family was in harmony.

But in the summer of 1959, Aristotle Onassis had invited Maria Callas and her impresario husband Giovanni Meneghini aboard the Christina for a Mediterranean cruise. Sir Winston and Lady Churchill was taking their annual trip aboard the yacht.

From the moment Callas stepped aboard the ship, neither she nor Onassis had eyes or heart for anyone or anything else. For several weeks, as the luxurious yacht cruised the warm sea with its cargo of emotionally charged people, both Ari and Maria totally ignored their respectives mates, as well as everyone else aboard.

Christina, then only 9 years old, had no specific idea of what was happening. Each time the ship came to port, there was an extraordinary number of newspapermen and photographers waiting, but there had always been a corps of journalists in her father's life and with such renowned people aboard, it seemed very little different from other cruises.

But as the days went on, there was occasional shouting - sometimes sobbing - behind closed cabin doors. The tension over the affair that Onassis was having almost openly with Callas became unbearable for almost everyone on board. The Churchills stayed in their cabins. Tina Onassis seemed to have no way of coping with her husband. Meneghini resorted to hysterical outbursts and screaming fits. Finally, it was decided to end the cruise and head back to Monte Carlo.

The morning the boat docked, Christina was wakened by her mother. Her suitcases were already packed, her books and playthings packaged, ready to go. Within hours, Christina and her mother and brother were on a plane en-route to New York. Tina's marriage to Ari was over; in a few months she divorced him.

Onassis actually pleaded with Tina, "for the sake of the children," to reconsider; but he had no intention of leaving Callas, who quickly divorced Meneghini to free herself to spend all her time with Onassis. As a part of the Onassis divorce settlement, he was given liberal visitation rights to be with his children, so in a matter of months Christina was back on board the ship with her brother and her father. But now there was another woman, in place of her mother.

Christina would never forgive Callas for breaking up her parents' marriage, and refused to be more than superficially cordial.

And as the little girl grew into young womanhood, both Christina and Callas grew to bitterly resent, if not actively hate each other. "Maria never like me very much," Christina said in a recent interview. "She even used to accuse me of trying to separate her from my father." As a matter of fact, Christina was attempting to do just that: It had always been her dream that Tina and Ari would remarry, and Christina had even had discussions with her father to that end.

When Onassis finally severed relations with Callas in 1968 and married Jacqueline Kennedy, instead of remarrying Tina, Christina was deeply hurt. Onassis practically had to beg his 18-year-old daughter to attend his wedding ceremony on Skorpios and she wept openly during the festivities. She also refused to toast the bride and bridegroom, hanging back and seeking comfort from her equally despondent brother. Within a few weeks after marrying Onassis, however, Jackie began a consistent campaign to enlist Christina's friendship. Jackie invited Christina to discreet luncheons, advised her on makeup and clothing, arranged intimate dinner parties for her, even helped her "plan" a new hairstyle and then brought her to Kenneth's salon in New York to have it executed. Within a short while, despite press reports to the contrary, the two women had become, if not friends, then at least passive associates.

Another side of Christina's life was becoming sadly disturbing. Her Aunt Eugenie, Tina's sister, died mysteriously; shortly afterwards, Eugenie's husband, Stavros Niarchos, avidly courted and won the jilted Tina. Christina watched in confusion as her mother married her uncle, who also happened to be her father's arch business rival. Troubled by this new wave of family disturbance, Christina began to seek solace from Jackie.

The teen-aged Christina grew close to John and Caroline Kennedy, and the younger children looked up to their new "big sister." The three were often seen together, Christina frequently wearing only a plain black dress, occasionally being mistaken for the Kennedys' governess.

Christina's security was rocked even more when her brother Alexander died in a plane crash in 1973. Her mother Tina died the following year.

And in March, 1975, came the final blow. Onassis lay dying in Paris. Christina, not Jackie, was at his bedside. Jackie had flown home to New York. Christina would never forgive her stepmother for what she considered such a grave and callous insult to her father.

Within a short while after his death, Christina, who had taken control of the Onassis billion-dollar empire, began plans to permanently abolish all Onassis-family connections with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She wanted Jackie off her island, Skorpios, out of her apartment in Paris. Instructions were given that The Christina was not to be sailed again with Jackie aboard.

Normally, according to Greek law, a widow receives at least half of her husband's estate. Onassis, who had considered divorcing Jackie but died before the marriage could be ended, had legally arranged for her to inherit much less. But after his death, Jackie's lawyers contested the amount, and petitioned for much more. After almost three years of legal negotiations, a financial settlement was reached in late 1977, in which Jackie received $20 million, about one-tenth of what she should have received as the widow of a Greek.

Christina was now in sole control of the vast Onassis conglomerate, at age 24 the richest woman in the world. But with all her great wealth, she remained lonely, unhappy, aloof, unsure.

After her father died, Christina was totally depressed. There have been unconfirmed reports that she attempted suicide. Slowly, she began to pull herself upward from her despair, relying heavily on her remaining family - her great-aunts and uncles, her cousins - and on her father's closest friends and business associates.

Shortly before his death, Onassis had begun to tutor Christina in the nuances of his vast holdings all over the world. Onassis invited her to - and she eagerly attended - every business meeting.

With Onassis' encouragement, she spent much time visiting tanker brokers, insurance companies, shipyards and shipping companies. After her father's death, carrying on his business became her primary concern, almost an obsession.

And almost as a token of respect to the memory of her father, and only four months after he died, Christina married Alexander Andreadis, the scion of a highly respected Greek shipping family whose father owned many banks, one of the largest shipyards in Greece, and the Athens Hilton Hotel.

But the marriage seemed doomed from the beginning. Christina ran roughshod over her quiet, unassuming husband. Headstrong, she did precisely as she pleased, running her corporations for their profit, and refusing to yield the slightest bit of control to her husband or his highly acquisitive family, who had seen the match as a way to at least partial control of the Onassis conglomerate. In a matter of months, they were living apart, and barely more than a year after their wedding, were divorced.

The Onassis fleet, under Christina's direction, has remained profitable and she commands the respect of the management of her corporations, although they disagree with her refusal to diversify.

She has shown surprising maturity, not only in the shipping business but in dealing with the vast Onassis holdings in real estate and industry, and has maintained the worth of the corporation, now reported to be somewhere in the $800 million range.

Recently, she stunned the world by marrying a 37-year-old Soviet shipping administrator. What could Christina, one of the world's richest women, a capitalist par excellence, have in common with a Communist?

"When you fall in love, what does it matter whether you are a communist or a capitalist?" Sergei Kauzov, the man of her choice, said.

Christina is now a handsome, educated (she speaks French, English, German, Italian and some Greek) young woman who has been courted and dated by the likes of Jean Paul Belmondo, Philipe Niarchos (a Greek shipping heir) and Rudolf Nureyev. Skorpios is one of the most enchantingly beautiful spots in the world. She has luxurious apartments in London, Paris, Athens and New York.

But she announced she would live in Moscow. And, bypassing the usual years of waiting, the couple has secured a seven-room apartment. They will also be able to obtain the traditional Soviet dacha - a vacation home in the country. Russia may become Christina's newest retreat, a place she can escape to when the pressures of business become too great. She enjoys and admires her new mother-in-law, who is the highly talented assistant to a Soviet film director.

Christina, like her late father, will always be on the move. Five days after she married Kauzov in a small, private, civil ceremony, she returned to Athens for business negotiations, cutting short her honeymoon in Siberia, beside Lake Baikal, and touching off rumors that the marriage was already on the rocks. (Ten years ago her father interrupted his honeymoon with Jacqueline Kennedy, also for business reasons.)

Kauzov is a linguist, but since he doesn't speak Greek - and she doesn't know it well, either - and she doesn't speak Russian, they converse in English. He has been a shipping administrator for years and is partly responsible for the Soviet Union's recent dominance of the tanker business, while most other countries are suffering economically in that area.

Kauzov is a likable and intelligent man who talks and knows almost as much about the technical side of shipping as Onassis did. Indeed, some friends of Christina claim that although there is no physical resemblance, Sergei greatly reminds her of her father.

This is Christina's first marriage based on love. It seems not to have been entered to prove a point. During the time she spends in Moscow, she will undoubtedly find the kind of privacy she has always wanted. And with Sergei she may regain the family she lost, and build a family of their own. Her first husband, Bolker, said: "What Christina really wants is a home with a baby in the garden . . . and a nursemaid, of course."

And her island, and her yacht, and her apartments, and her limousines, and her $200 million in private assets, including her brand new personal account at the Soviet Bank for Foreign Trade.

Tragic Details About Christina Onassis

It's hard to imagine that Christina Onassis would have enjoyed being branded a "poor little rich girl" by the press (specifically the Argentine newspaper La Nación, per the Los Angeles Times ). It's hardly a glowing summary of a lifetime. But by the time of her death in 1988, at just 37 years old, there was much about Onassis' life that smacked of tragedy.

She and her family had long been made sport of by cynical onlookers. Their fortune, once estimated to have crossed the $1 billion mark, had shrunk to $250 million just before Onassis' death. Even that amount of wealth was widely held to have dampened her love life. Her affairs, her weight, and her looks were mocked, and all remained insecurities for the woman herself, to be battled with junk food and diet pills. A peripheral character in the Kennedy legacy, she never took to her stepmother Jackie Kennedy . Her relationships seemed to come on a whim and fell apart just as quickly. And her family all seemed to meet with unhappy ends.

That Onassis was an effective steward of the family shipping business, or that she seemed to be getting a new lease on life before her death, tended to be overlooked. And her stepsister Henrietta Gelber told People that she doubted Onassis herself could ever have had a happy life. "What she was striving for," said Gelber, "was just to be a normal human being with normal family relationships, which was virtually impossible in her situation."

She was an unwanted child

Christina Onassis was born on December 11, 1950, in New York City. By that time, the family fortune had already been made, though it hadn't reached into the billions yet. Aristotle Onassis, her father, arrived in Argentina almost 30 years earlier as a poor Greek immigrant and transformed himself into an international tycoon through his shipping business. Expanding that business seemed to be a factor in Aristotle's choice of bride; he married Athina "Tina" Livanos, daughter to another Greek shipping magnate, in 1946.

Two years later, the photogenic couple had their first child, Alexander Onassis. One son and heir was all the children Aristotle wanted. According to William Wright's " All the Pain That Money Can Buy: The Life of Christina Onassis ," Aristotle told many people, including his wife, that more children would dilute the value of his name and complicate the future of the business and fortune. Tina acquiesced by terminating two pregnancies, despite her increasingly strained marriage. But when she became pregnant in 1950, Tina — who privately expected to divorce and remarry — didn't want to risk her own health with another abortion, and not even a violent beating from Aristotle could change her mind.

When Christina was born, however, Tina was in some ways the more resentful parent. Though she loved her daughter, she was disturbed by Christina's close physical resemblance to Aristotle and doubted her own fitness to be a mother to either child.

She suffered from selective mutism as a child

Growing up, Christina Onassis rarely had her parents' full attention. Her mother Tina Onassis, despite loving her children, struggled to overcome her own mental health issues and a nagging doubt that she knew how to mother. Aristotle Onassis, who hadn't wanted any more children after his son Alexander Onassis, was affectionate enough with Christina to give her the nickname "Chryso mou" ("my golden one" in Greek, per the Chicago Tribune ), but he was often away. Both had personal and professional concerns that did not include their children, who were primarily raised by servants.

Against this family backdrop, Christina suddenly stopped speaking at age 3. The regression brought her the undivided attention of her parents and household staff, albeit briefly. A psychological assessment in Zürich concluded that she had developed a form of selective mutism that was specifically named mercurial mutism and blamed on an overprotective home environment — not exactly a thorough accounting of Christina's upbringing. Author William Wright suggested in his biography of Christina Onassis that Christina just refused to talk to try and get noticed by parents who spent too little time with her, not too much.

If it was a deliberate act, however, it was one Christina claimed not to remember when she grew up. And her mutism would return, to some extent, when she learned of her parents' divorce.

She never recovered from her parents' divorce and distrusted Jackie Kennedy

Divorce is a difficult thing for children to comprehend and accept; for Christina Onassis, acceptance never came. Her parents separated in 1959, when she was 8 years old, and divorced the year after. While the marriage of Aristotle and Tina Onassis had long been unstable, his open affair with the opera singer Maria Callas proved the last straw. Aristotle had tolerated an affair of Tina's years earlier, but the ostentatious display he made of his dalliance infuriated his wife. She left with the children and arranged for as visible and scandalous a divorce announcement as she could.

Christina reacted to the divorce initially by regressing into mutism, then nursing a grudge against Callas. Well into adulthood, she regarded the divorce as an unwelcome intrusion into a happy home life that would one day be mended, despite the reality that her parents were often distant and neglectful to her even before separating. And when her father remarried, to Jackie Kennedy, Christina never came to like Kennedy. "My father's unfortunate obsession" is how she described her (per William Wright's "All the Pain That Money Can Buy"). Kennedy's personality and the vast age difference between her and Aristotle upset Christina, but it couldn't have helped that Aristotle pressured Christina to take after her stepmother.

Christina Onassis was manipulated into relationships by both parents

The major players of the Greek shipping business could take a dynastic attitude toward their work, and Christina Onassis found herself a pawn of both her parents' schemes for expansion and consolidation over the years. When she was 22, her mother Tina Onassis tried to arrange a marriage between Christina and Philippe Niarchos. Philippe was the son of Stavros Niarchos, Aristotle Onassis' great business rival, and Eugenie Livanos, Tina's sister, making Philippe Christina's first cousin. If that didn't make the proposed match gothic enough, Tina had married Stavros after her divorce and her sister's death.

According to William Wright's book, Christina was frank with her mother that she liked her cousin but did not love him. She and Philippe were willing to try a romance for the sake of family, but it wasn't happening. In that case, the cousins called things off after a fit of giggles. But Christina would not so easily escape her father's matchmaking efforts several years later. He wanted her to marry Peter Goulandris, another Greek shipping heir whose fortune could be brought into the Onassis orbit.

Tina approved of Goulandris and helped Aristotle to pressure their daughter. Christina rebelled by persisting with her own romance, with Danny Marentette, and dodging her father's calls. But Aristotle wouldn't take no for an answer. He extracted a deathbed promise from Christina to marry Goulandris; she didn't keep it.

She lost her father, mother, and brother within three years

Christina Onassis' upbringing was complicated and often unhappy, but she still loved her family. She would lose them all in less than three years. The first to go was her brother Alexander Onassis. After years maintaining a distant relationship, he and Christina reconnected as adults, in part out of mutual frustration with their father. As the firstborn, and a son, Alexander was in line to inherit the Onassis family business, and he and Aristotle Onassis often clashed. One of their fights was over Alexander's hobby of flying planes. Despite being a careful pilot, his head was crushed in a plane crash in Athens in 1972.

Alexander's death consumed his family. Aristotle, who began training Christina to run his shipping empire, never fully recovered from the loss. According to William Wright's "All the Pain That Money Can Buy," he fell into paranoid suspicions of murder, suspecting nearly everyone close to him except Christina of killing Alexander. His own health suffered from muscular deterioration. He died in 1975 after gallbladder surgery, with Christina by his bedside.

In between Alexander and Aristotle's deaths, Christina's mother Tina Onassis died. Her death was blamed on pulmonary edema after an overdose of pills. But Christina always suspected her mother's husband, Stavros Niarchos, of foul play. Niarchos' earlier wife Eugenie Niarchos, Tina's sister, had died under similar circumstances several years before.

She had a history of suicidal ideation

On top of the many unfortunate episodes of her life, Christina Onassis struggled with clinical depression. Several times over the years, this manifested as suicidal behavior. Her aunt Eugenie Livanos and her mother Tina Onassis were both believed to have died from an overdose of pills while married to Stavros Niarchos. Christina, who believed her uncle-stepfather to have murdered Eugenie, overdosed herself when she learned that her mother and Niarchos planned to marry.

She turned to pills again during a difficult period in her relationship with Peter Goulandris, who she remained with in part to please her ailing father. She was quickly taken to Middlesex Hospital in London, which saved her life. She relayed the incident herself to friend and writer Nicholas Papanicolaou with a rather flippant phone call, per William Wright's "All the Pain That Money Can Buy." Her mother came to her bedside to care for her, and she made a fairly quick recovery.

In 1975, after literally standing by her father's side in his final hours, Christina fell into another wave of depression. After her father's passing, she attempted suicide at the hospital with a stolen surgeon's tool. Staff prevented her from doing more than superficial damage to one wrist.

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She suspected her uncle/stepfather of murder

Among the most complicated and harmful relationships in Christina Onassis' life was the one she had with Stavros Niarchos. For a time, he was Christina's uncle, having married her aunt Eugenie Livanos. Later, he became Christina's stepfather when he married her mother. And, at least in Christina's mind, he was the murderer of both women.

It wasn't only Christina who harbored suspicions about Niarchos. Her brother Alexander Onassis and her father Aristotle Onassis both felt the same. It was only the Livanos family, Christina's mother included, who thought that he didn't have something to do with Eugenie's death, despite the numerous injuries on her body. Tina Onassis was unmarked at the time of her death, but according to William Wright's book," Niarchos was confirmed to have been in the house when she died, only inflaming Christina's suspicions. Aristotle, fearful after his daughter's recent suicide attempt, tried to quell her suspicions despite sharing them.

Against her father's wishes, Christina sought an autopsy on her mother and fed her suspicions to the press. In retaliation, Niarchos leaked knowledge of one of Christina's suicide attempts and insinuated that the worry and stress it caused Tina contributed to her death.

She was obsessed with a man who didn't want her

A consistent theme across articles and biographies written on Christina Onassis is what a disaster her love life was. For whatever reason, all of her romantic relationships fell apart. In this, she was not unlike her father, though Onassis saw an important distinction. "My father was never happy in love, but he was always successful," she once said (via the Chicago Tribune). "With me, it is always the other way around."

But there was one romantic attachment of hers that was neither happy nor successful. In her youth, her eye was caught by Mick Flick, the heir to the Mercedes Benz fortune, and he remained a source of infatuation for her throughout the years, marriages, and divorces. Given Flick's vast wealth, Onassis' father wasn't against the thought of him as a son-in-law. But Flick consistently declined Onassis' affections.

She kept trying over the years. When she learned that Flick liked blondes, she dyed her naturally dark hair, but Flick was turned off instead of attracted. The two kept crossing paths, but never as lovers. Onassis was obsessed enough that, when she got wind of the women Flick did date, she would harass them on the phone for details.

Was Christina Onassis used by the KGB?

Christina Onassis married four times, all of them ending in divorce. The reasons varied, as did the impact on Onassis herself. But only one of her marriages became a subject of interest for intelligence agencies. That was her union with husband number three, Sergei Kauzov.

Like Onassis herself, Kauzov was in the shipping business, in his case with a base in his native Russia. But Kauzov's lifestyle seemed to some disproportionately lavish to his reported earnings. An unremarkable apartment in Moscow stood in stark contrast to the time he spent in a nomadic but luxurious lifestyle in France that he detailed in expatriate newspapers. A fear grew in some corners of the CIA that Kauzov was a KGB agent, and that his entire relationship with Onassis was a KGB plot. As head of a major Western shipping firm, Onassis would have valuable information about energy developments in the free world. Who better than a husband to pry such information out of her?

Onassis biographer Nigel Dempster rejected the theory (per the Chicago Tribune ), as did experts on the KGB. Kauzov didn't fit the profile of a suave seducer, and too much else about his life and movements didn't add up. At most, the KGB might have seen some propaganda value in having Onassis marry into a notable Russian family. But she found life in Moscow dull, and by the time she and Kauzov tied the knot, the romance was gone from their relationship.

Her marriages were wrecked by family sabotage and business intrigues

The forces working against Christina Onassis' four marriages were many. In the case of her third marriage, to Russian shipping magnate Sergei Kauzov, her own boredom and lack of feeling for Kauzov ended things. But before and after that divorce, darker pressures affected her unions. Not least of these was the campaign her father waged against her first husband, Joseph Bolker. Twenty-seven years Christina's senior, Bolker was a sympathetic husband. But his age, his Jewish background, and the fact that he wasn't personally chosen or approved by Aristotle Onassis inspired a fierce campaign on his part to smear Bolker's name with his daughter, to some limited success (per William Wright's "All the Pain That Money Can Buy"). She and Bolker divorced after nine months.

Christina's father and family initially approved of her second husband, Alexander Andreadis. He was Greek like them, and he was a shipping magnate in his own right. But after they tied the knot, it emerged that the Andreadis fortune was in trouble. He wanted $20 million from his wife, who had just come into her inheritance from her father. Christina had hoped that Andreadis' background was a guarantee against his wanting her for her money; she was now convinced he was a gold-digger. They divorced after 14 months. Her final marriage, to Thierry Roussel, ended on a less dramatic but just as painful note for Christina; Roussel was having an affair.

She was turning her life around just before her death

Much about Christina Onassis' death in 1988 was grim. There was her age at the time, only 37 years old. There was the echo of her mother's death; both were ruled to have died from pulmonary edema. There were also whispers about the nature of her death. A judge had found cause to open an investigation into the circumstances, and there were rumors of murder, suicide, or a medication overdose. These were refuted by the autopsy, which found no grounds to suspect any such circumstances.

But perhaps the most tragic aspect of Onassis' death was that, when it came, her life was beginning to turn around. Though her fourth marriage had ended in divorce like the rest, she and ex-husband Thierry Roussel were still in each other's lives. They'd had a child together, Athina Roussel, and planned to have more through artificial insemination. Onassis was enjoying time in Argentina and had just bought a ranch near Buenos Aires to spend part of the year at.

She was also losing weight, which biographer Nigel Dempster suspected might have helped lead to her death (per the Chicago Tribune ). A lifetime of cycling through compulsive eating and diet pills, he reasoned, weakened her body.

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The curse of classic 63m sailing yacht Creole

In the words of veteran photographer Gilles Martin-Raget, Creole  is “a boat outside all the norms of size, aesthetics and history”. Certainly, at 63.03 metres, the three-masted schooner is rated the world’s largest wooden sailing yacht and her beauty is unquestionable. Yet it is the word “history” that resonates here because Creole ’s back story is interlaced with suicide, jealousy and murder – beyond most norms, certainly.

Sailors tend to be superstitious souls and “the curse of Creole ” is a phrase not unknown in yachting lore. It seemed it had struck again when it was reported from Italy that the vessel’s owners, Alessandra and Allegra Gucci, were being investigated for alleged tax dodging. How is it possible, a rational person might ask, for a boat to infect its owners with ill fortune? How indeed.

Yet deep scrutiny of Creole ’s past reveals some strange facts, including an episode in which a medium was hired to exorcise “evil influences”. And a highly respected Italian newspaper once carried a headline that claimed “The Creole betrayed Maurizio Gucci”, her then owner and father of Alessandra and Allegra.

The omens were not good when it took three attempts to break the magnum of Champagne on the bow of the big schooner when she was christened Vira at Camper & Nicholsons ’ yard in Gosport, Hampshire. It was 1927 and the vessel was considered a masterpiece of her time, not least by her architect, the esteemed Charles E Nicholson . The yacht was at the forefront of design and technology, with two generators, electric refrigeration and central heating throughout her apartment-sized suites.

But trouble began early on. When her owner, the immensely wealthy US carpet manufacturer Alexander Smith Cochran, saw the towering rig he quailed. It would be unmanageable, he said, and ordered the yard to shorten her spars by three metres. It was not enough, he maintained, after the work was done. Cut them down some more.

Vira finally left Gosport with a stumpy rig that didn’t suit her ballast. Lead was taken out at a yard in Spain, but they overdid it and she became hopelessly tender. Then, the frustrated and unhappy Cochran was struck down by tuberculosis. He died a year later, aged 55.

Vira was sold to South Coast yachtsman Maurice Pope, who renamed her Creole , apparently after a particularly delicious dessert created by his chef. In 1937 she was bought by financier Sir Connop Guthrie, who had just been made a baronet. Guthrie was a dedicated sailor who restored Creole ’s rig and keel and raced her successfully until the outbreak of WWII in 1939.

Guthrie loaned Creole to the Admiralty and, with her rig removed and her deckworks changed to accept armament, she became the mine-hunter Magic Circle .

Guthrie died, aged 63, in 1945, the year that Magic Circle was returned to his family. She became Creole once more but was almost unrecognisable after her war service. Following the death of Sir Connop she languished in a sorry state until spotted by Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping tycoon.

It was 1947 and Niarchos, like his great rival Aristotle Onassis, was growing fabulously rich thanks to the post-war shipping boom. He snapped up the forlorn schooner and began a restoration that would cost many millions but which returned Creole to the beautifully appointed and wickedly fast yacht her designer had intended.

Niarchos added the capacious varnished deckhouse Creole has today and her cabins were hung with valuable works from his art collection. She became his floating home for long periods; his most treasured possession and, ultimately, a silent witness to tragedy and a sensational mystery.

As Creole ’s restoration began, Niarchos courted Eugenia Livanos, the beautiful 21-year-old daughter of another shipping magnate. They were married, had four children and, despite his affairs, remained together.

In May 1970, they were on holiday on Niarchos’s private island, Spetsopoula, in the Aegean. With them was Athina – Tina – Onassis, Eugenia’s sister. What happened on the night of 3 May is, to this day, the subject of speculation and dark whispers, but the official version is that Eugenia killed herself with an overdose of barbiturates. At a post mortem on the mainland, the pathologist reported severe bruising on Eugenia’s body and the prosecutor in Piraeus began an investigation.

Niarchos became a suspect but he was later exonerated. According to some sources, he was cleared after the intervention of Greece’s ruling military junta, with which he had close links. It later emerged, in an account said to have been based on the testimony of a witness who was on the island, that Eugenia had caught Niarchos trying to force himself upon Tina, her sister, and a violent fight broke out.

In another account, Eugenia was said to have taken a lethal overdose in her cabin aboard Creole . What is certain is that Creole was used to bring Eugenia’s body back from the mainland to Spetsopoula, where she was buried in the Niarchos family mausoleum.

The death of Eugenia ended Niarchos’s love affair with Creole . He went on to marry Tina and sold the yacht, in 1977, to the Danish government for use as a sail training vessel for youngsters, including those in a drugs rehabilitation programme. Such work took a heavy toll; after five years, the cost of maintaining Creole was more than the Danes could justify and a new owner was sought.

In 1982 the schooner – then well over half a century old – began the phase of her life that continues today. She was bought by Maurizio Gucci, whose lavish spending surpassed everything even Niarchos had done. And, it must be said, the horror that was to unfold transcended, too, the tragedy that had befallen Creole ’s previous owner.

When Maurizio Gucci bought Creole he was 35 and already on his way to heading the renowned Gucci family fashion house. He was married to Patrizia Reggiana, the daughter of a Milan businessman and mother of Allegra and Alessandra. Patrizia was one of Milan’s great beauties, an Elizabeth Taylor lookalike, with violet eyes and a captivating smile. She was also unashamedly materialistic. “I’d rather weep in a Rolls-Royce than laugh on a bicycle,” she once said.

Despite being rather hard-nosed, Patrizia was deeply superstitious and stories about the “curse of Creole ” troubled her. She persuaded Maurizio to hire Frida, a medium and practising psychic, to exorcise the evil spirits Patrizia believed haunted the yacht.

The episode is detailed in Sara Gay Forden’s acclaimed book,  The House of Gucci . Forden wrote that Frida “went into a trance” and walked through  Creole  mumbling incomprehensibly. “Open the door, open the door,” Frida cried out suddenly as Maurizio and Patrizia looked at each other, puzzled. They were standing in an open corridor; there was no door. But the Sicilian crewmember turned ashen. Before the restoration of  Creole , there had been a door in that very spot, he said.

Forden goes on to say that Frida pointed to a place where, the psychic said, Eugenia Niarchos’s body had been found. Then she snapped out of her trance, said, “It’s all over” and declared  Creole  “free of evil spirits”.

Malign forces were at work, however. The Gucci family was tearing itself apart, riven by jealousy and resentment over ownership of the celebrated brand and the millions it was earning. Maurizio was accused of buying  Creole  by illegally diverting funds through a Panama-based company. The police and fiscal investigators launched an inquiry. In June 1987, the Italian papers were full of it. “Gucci in a storm over a dream yacht; arrest warrants issued” ran a headline in  La Repubblica . “The _Creole _betrayed Maurizio Gucci” was the banner in  Corriere della Sera .

Creole was sailed out of Italian waters to Mallorca to put her beyond the reach of the police and Maurizio made his own escape by riding his red Kawasaki motorcycle over the border into Switzerland.

In 1988 Maurizio was indicted for illegally exporting the money he had used to buy Creole , then was swiftly acquitted because changes in the law meant capital export was no longer a criminal offence. He rode out numerous legal storms and eventually returned to Italy, where he sold his shares in Gucci for more than £100 million.

By now Maurizio was separated from Patrizia and busy spending his fortune, a lot of which was lavished on Creole . The designer Toto Russo helped re-work the yacht’s interior, with the deckhouse decorated in sumptuous style, featuring artworks and handmade pieces carved from solid ebony and marble. There were just four guest cabins, for two people each, with their own bathroom. Her usual crew numbered 16. Guests were handed a white sweatshirt and slacks to wear on board. The top featured Creole ’s emblem, a pair of intertwined seahorses.

As Maurizio enjoyed his yacht, Patrizia looked on, becoming increasingly jealous. She raged over the money it was costing – at one point it emerged he had spent €800,000 on just one area of the accommodation. It was not known whether this included the cost of buying the stingray skins that lined the bulkheads.

Patrizia was living in an apartment with her daughters, growing more and more resentful by the day, especially when she learnt that Maurizio was thinking of marrying his young girlfriend, Paola Franchi.

Then, on 27 March 1995, as Maurizio arrived at his office in Milan’s Via Palestro, a man stepped into the lobby of the building and fired three shots. Wounded, but probably not fatally, Maurizio slumped to the floor. The gunman fired a fourth bullet into his temple at close range, killing him instantly. Maurizio was 46.

Almost two years later, in January 1997, police arrested Patrizia. It emerged later that she had hired a killer, through a friend with underworld contacts, to murder her husband. She was convicted and served 16 years in jail.

Maurizio’s daughters Allegra and Alessandra inherited Creole and keep her in the style to which she has become accustomed. She is occasionally seen at classic events in the Mediterranean, although in recent years her role has been as mothership to the other, smaller Gucci classic, Avel . The Gucci sisters say Creole keeps their father’s memory alive, and certainly the yacht is associated with some of the happiest times in Maurizio’s short life.

Rationally, of course, one cannot attribute horror and tragedy to a jinx said to cling to a sailing yacht. Yet, there may always be some who will look at Creole ’s dark story and experience a shiver down the spine.

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