In 1894, King Carlos I reigned in Portugal. That year, as the only football cup bearing the name of this monarch is played between Lisbon and Porto, Japan declares war on China, Edward VII inaugurates Tower Bridge, the International Olympic Committee is founded, and the first lighthouse in Sagres is lit. The writer Robert Louis Stevenson dies. Nikita Khrushchev, Edward VIII, and Jean Renoir are born.. Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay isolate argon, the noble gas, for the first time.
In Portugal, Afonso H. O’Neill & C.a Lda is founded, a ship brokerage firm that would carry the name of Portugal around the world for more than a century… with much more still to come. Therefore, it would come as no surprise if the first goods to cross the Panama Canal, Winston Churchill’s cigars, or parts of the Space Shuttle had passed through the hands of this company.
Who knows? Fact is, ‘Afonso O’Neill’ has been synonymous with trust among Shipowners and Carriers worldwide… since 1894.