The Chandris family is best known for its passenger liners, but is less well known for its tanker operations. The family acquired their first tanker, the 1913-built Vassos, in 1935, and during the 1960s became one of the top ten Greek ship owners and among the first Greek companies to order very large crude carriers (VLCCs).
When delivered by the Odense shipyard in Denmark in April 1969, the 209,000dwt was the largest tanker ever owned by a Greek company. Four years later the 290,000dwt was delivered by the same yard. The funnels of all of their ships were emblazoned with the Greek letter ‘chi’, the initial letter
