The Early Years
In 1884
the Canadian Pacific
Railway Co. entered into ship owning and three steamers were built to
operate Great Lakes services. These
ships sailed across the
Atlantic, were cut in half at Montreal,
towed to Buffalo
and
rejoined. In 1886 regular passenger services were started between Montreal and Port
Moody
and in 1887 a service between Vancouver and the Orient commenced with
chartered
vessels, to be followed in 1891 by the company's own "Empress" ships.
The Columbia
and Kootenay River Navigation Co was purchased in 1890 and this enabled
CPR to
enter the sternwheeler traffic of the Canadian Rockies lakes and river
trade.
The same year, passenger routes were established between Toronto, Montreal
and Chicago.
A Vancouver
- Victoria
service started in 1897 and in 1901 the ships and coastal services of
the
Canadian Pacific Navigation Co were acquired. Transatlantic passenger
services
commenced in 1903 when the fleet and North Atlantic interests of Elder
Dempster
& Co and their subsidiary Beaver Line were taken over and the
following
year, a regular service between Seattle and Victoria BC was
inaugurated. The Bay
of Funday
route started in 1912 and in 1913 CPR and Allan Line started joint
co-operation
in victualling and stores depots and the two fleets eventually merged,
but this
was not formally announced until Jan. 1916. Most of CPR's fleet was
requisitioned for war service in 1914 and in 1915 Canadian Pacific
Ocean
Services was formed to operate the combined CPR / Allan Line fleets.
Canadian
Pacific Steamships Ltd
In 1921 the title of the
operating company became Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. On the
outbreak of
war in 1939, Canadian Pacific placed all their ships at the disposal of
the
government and several were taken over as troopships. In the 1960s with
the
advent of air travel and cargo containerisation, the passenger ships
were
gradually sold and new container and bulk cargo vessels built.
CP Ships
In 1968
Canadian
Pacific Line was renamed CP Ships and the use of its famous red and
white
checkered flag dating from 1891 was discontinued. In 1970 CP Ships
retired from
the passenger liner business with the retirement of the last of its
famous
“Empress” ocean liners. Since then CP Ships has primarily been a
container
shipping line.
In 1984
Canadian Pacific
co-founded Canada Maritime with CMB. This brand became a wholly owned
subsidiary of CP Ships in 1993. Canada Maritime is the largest carrier
providing intermodal container shipping services between North America
and
North/Mediterranean Europe via the Montreal
gateway. The Northern Service operates over three weekly routes, the
Mediterranean Service over two. In both services Canada Maritime
deploys
ice-strengthened container ships designed to ensure year round schedule
integrity.
Its weekly Pacific Gateway Service, introduced in 2003 and expanded in
2004,
connects Anchorage and Vancouver,
with China, Japan, South
Korea, Singapore,
Malaysia and Thailand.
Canada Maritime's ocean services are supported by a network of rail,
truck and
barge links to the North American, European and Asian industrial
heartlands.
Canada Maritime is one of few container carriers to be awarded Q1
Quality
status by Ford Motor Company. Over the years, it has also been cited
numerous
times for quality service by the Canadian International Freight
Forwarders
Association. And it has earned awards from Logistics Management &
Distribution Report and Canadian Transportation & Logistics
magazines.
Another of
the CP Ships
brands is CAST, founded in Canada
in 1969 and acquired by CP Ships in 1995. It was one of the first
shipping
lines to market vertically integrated door-to-door services on a single
bill of
lading. It was also one of the container shipping industry's branding
pioneers.
Cast offers service on five separate weekly routes between North
America and
North Europe and the Mediterranean
via the
Montreal Gateway. It has won many awards for schedule reliability, fast
transit
times and customer service, including from Logistics Management and
Distribution Report and Lloyds Loading List.
In 1997
Lykes Lines was
acquired by CP Ships. Lykes Lines is one of the US
liner industry's longest
enduring brands. It began as Lykes Bros. Steamship Company in 1899,
with a
wooden schooner transporting cattle from the US Gulf to Cuba.
In the
1920s, it expanded, opening offices in Europe, and by the 1930s trade
routes
extended to the Mediterranean and Asia.
In
1979, the Letitia Lykes was the first US-flag ship to call at a port in
China
since the revolution there.
Today it
offers services in
the US, Canada, North Europe, Mediterranean,
Asia, India,
Oceania, Africa, Central and South
America and the Caribbean. Its
services
include those previously operated under the Ivaran and CCAL brands,
which were
acquired by CP Ships in 1998 and 2000 respectively.
Another
addition to CP Ships
was Contship Containerlines in 1997. Founded as a regional market
specialist in
1968, Contship Containerlines was one of Europe's
first ocean carriers dedicated exclusively to container service. This
acquisition
established the group's first platform for expansion beyond the
Trans-Atlantic.
Being a part of CP Ships allowed it to develop its regional focus
resulting in
considerable service product and trade lane improvements. Today
Contship
Containerlines serves many of the world key regional trades.
Australia
New Zealand Direct
Line (ANZDL) was founded in 1987 and acquired by CP Ships in December
1998.
Since then, ANZDL has replaced its entire fleet of container ships and
restructured and improved its services. It offers services between Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands,
North America, Mexico
and South
America.
ANZDL is an acknowledged frontrunner in the container shipping
industry, in
terms of both customer service and the development of web-based
e-commerce
applications.
One of the
more recent
additions is TMM Lines which joined CP Ships in 1999. As a carrier with
expertise in both North and South America, TMM Lines is in a unique
position as
an Americas
specialist. It has its origins in Linea Mexicana, the shipping line
acquired by
Grupo TMM in 1960. Its first services operated between the US and Mexico. In the 1960s, it
expanded
into the Central and South America trades and launched its first
regular
TransAtlantic service into Northern Europe.
In
1968 it began operating scheduled services between Mexico
and Asia and between Mexico
and the Mediterranean.
In early 1999, CP Ships and Grupo TMM formed the joint venture
Americana Ships.
It included TMM's liner division and CP Ships' Lykes Lines. TMM Lines
was
launched in November 1999 and all the previous TMM liner brands
(operating
under the names TMM, Linea Mexicana, Tecomar and TMG) were absorbed
into it. In
2000, CP Ships acquired Grupo TMM's share of Americana Ships and so
gained full
control of TMM Lines.
TMM Lines
is now more
internationally focused, with expanded TransAtlantic, TransPacific and
north-south services, including Africa, on both the east and west
coasts of the Americas.
CP Ships
latest acquisition
is the renowned Italian shipping line, Italia Line acquired in 2002.
Italia
Line, CP Ships' Mediterranean-Americas specialist, offers fast and
frequent
connections between the Mediterranean and major markets in the US Gulf,
the
West Coast of North America, as well as South and Central
America. It was acquired by CP Ships in August 2002.
Italia Line's origins date back to the first half of the 19th century
with the
founding of two steamship companies that merged in 1881. Throughout the
early
20th century Italia became well known for its extensive passenger
services
between Italy and the United States and Brazil including in its fleet
over the
years many famous ocean liners such as the REX, AUGUSTUS, LEONARDO DA
VINCI,
CHRISTOFORO COLUMBO, and ANDREA DORIA. But after the decline in demand
for
passenger travel in the 1970s, it focused mainly on cargo transport.
It is the market leader on services from the Mediterranean
to West Coast North America and has developed a particular expertise in
handling temperature-controlled cargo, offering full refrigerated
facilities on
all services.
<>Today CP
Ships is one of the
world’s leading container shipping companies, CP Ships combines the
customer
focus and market presence of a regional specialist with the scale
economies of
a global carrier to provide cost efficient and competitive ocean and
intermodal
transportation service. More than 80% of its activity is North American
exports
or imports. CP Ships' principal markets are: TransAtlantic,
Australasia, Latin
America and Asia. Within these
markets CP
Ships operates 34 services in 21 trade lanes, most of which are served
by two
or more of its seven readily recognized brand names: ANZDL, Canada
Maritime,
Cast, Contship Containerlines, Italia Line, Lykes Lines and TMM Lines.
Within
the majority of its core trade lanes, CP Ships is the leading carrier.
CP Ships
since 2001 has been trading as a separate company having been one of
the five
subsidiaries that were spun out of the parent company Canadian Pacific
Ltd to
form separate companies. In 2003 CP Ships reintroduced the famous
checkered
flag as its corporate symbol.
The Final Years
On the 21st
August 2005, the German congolomerate TUI AG offered to acquire CP
Ships
Limited for €1.7 billion (US$2.0 billion) in cash, and merge it with
TUI's
Hapag-Lloyd division.
On the 30th
August 2005, Ship Acquisition Incorporated, an indirect wholly-owned
subsidiary
of TUI AG made a formal offer for 100% of CP Ships shares. The deal was
approved
by the boards of both CP Ships and TUI AG and was presented to CP Ships
shareholders for approval.
On the 19th
October 2005 CP Ships and TUI AG jointly announced that 89.1% of CP
Ships
shareholders, representing 84,095,325 common shares, had accepted Ship
Acquisition Inc.'s August 30 offer. The shares were to be taken up the
following day the 20th October 2005, followed by payment of
$21.50
USD per share on the 25th October 2005. Following the
purchase and
merger, TUI AG's combined Hapag-Lloyd and CP Ships fleet will comprise
the
fifth largest by capacity in the worldwide container shipping market.
From May
2006 the
integration of CP Ships services into HAPAG-LLOYD began in two phases.
The
first phase involved the transfer of North Atlantic Services to Hapag
Lloyd and
this concluded in mid July 2006 ending over a century of Canadian
Pacific on
the North Atlantic. The second phase
starting
in mid July 2006 involved the transfer of all other services and was
completed
by the end of August 2006. So by the 31st August 2006 this
integration was complete and the CP Ships brand and website were
discontinued. Thus
CP Ships and the legacy of Canadian Pacific’s shipping operations was
no more
and thus passed into history.
TUI Group A.G.
www.tui-group.com
HAPAG - Lloyd Group
www.hapag-lloyd.com
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