Sex, scandal, combat, Liz Taylor: this superyacht has seen it all

One of the world’s most storied vessels has been listed by Morley Yachts and Fraser for €52 million (£45 million). The 100-metre Christina O began its life as an anti-submarine frigate called HMCS Stormont, built by Canadian Vickers during the Second World War. She served time in the Arctic and Atlantic and was also present during the D-Day landings in Normandy.

But society-watchers might recognise its current name. After the war, the ship was sold by the admiralty to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Onassis and his first wife, Athina Livanos, named it after their daughter Christina and overhauled the interior in their over-the-top style. The mosaic swimming pool had a retractable floor that converted it into a dance floor. The on-board ‘Ari’s Bar’ was built with timber from a sunken Spanish galleon, and the stools upholstered in whale foreskin.

In 1958, Onassis invited Winston Churchill aboard to meet two other VIP guests: John F Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. Later guests included John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and, of course, Maria Callas. Evidently the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’ was a quaint one among the super-rich of the 20th century.

When the Onassis heiresses passed on their inheritance, the Christina fell into the hands of the Greek state, which renamed her Argo. John Paul ‘Big John’ Papanicolaou, a next-generation shipping titan, picked her up in a government auction and rebuilt it, renaming the on-board library in Churchill’s honour and adding an ‘O’ to the name. She has operated as a luxury charter yacht ever since, with a crew of 40 serving 34 guests across 17 cabins.

The cost is equivalent to two Cessna private jets, though many would consider the historical, political and social heft to be priceless.