Calif Bill wrote:

Onassis got big in the shipping business because he bought the left over
Liberty ships from the US government at the end of WW II for less than scrap
value. Probably pennies on the $1000.


G Maersk was another of these who made good from WW2.
Story goes, he turned over all his ships to US government at the
outbreak of the war with the stipulation that all those sunk would be
replaced at the end of hostilities.
Most of the ships were junk and all were sunk so that at the end of the
war he ended up with a fleet of "new" ships, courtesy of Uncle Sam.