Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company

[7] Pearson's prospecting continued without success until 27 December 1910, when a well on the Gulf of Mexico coast between Veracruz and Tampico struck oil that flowed at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day.

[8] In 1911 the Mexican Revolution overthrew the Díaz dictatorship that had favoured Pearson, ending the civil engineering contracts for which he had first become involved in Mexico.

[8] By June 1913 Mexican Eagle was the largest company in the Pearson group, with net assets valued at £6.8 million.

[11] However, in December 1918 Pearson claimed in a letter to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, that Mexican Eagle was worth £8 million.

[16] Pearson asked the UK Government to buy 50% of his oil interests, but it responded in 1917 by imposing restrictions that prevented him from transferring ownership as long as the war continued.

[16] In October 1918, a month before the Armistice, Calouste Gulbenkian started negotiations with Pearson for Royal Dutch Shell to buy Mexican Eagle.

Pearson also bought SS James Brand (3,907 tons), which had been built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1893, and renamed her San Bernardo.

[22] Eagle Oil Transport immediately ordered 20 modern steam tankers[6] at a cost of £3 million.

[11] Eagle Oil Transport lost a number of ships to enemy action in the First World War.

Enemy action sank 17 Eagle Oil's ships and killed at least 206 officers, men and DEMS gunners serving aboard them.

Among the ships lost was MV San Demetrio (8,073 tons), which was famous for surviving a naval bombardment by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer in 1940 that set the tanker on fire.

San Demetrio was repaired and returned to service, but the U-boat U-404 torpedoed and sank her in the western Atlantic off Virginia in 1942 with the loss of 19 lives.