It was certainly a great victory for Gulbenkian—the culmination of thirty-seven years of concentration, and a testament to his perseverance and tenacity. It was the deal for which he had waited his entire adult life. It would be worth tens of millions of dollars to him. To mark the grand event, he chartered a boat that summer and set off on a Mediterranean cruise with his daughter Rita. Off the coast of Morocco, he caught sight of a type of ship he had never seen before. It looked very strange to him, with its funnel jutting up at the extreme stern of the long hull. He asked what it was. An
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