The
Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient
Line) (Est.
1878)
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The Orient
Steam
Navigation Company, also known as the Orient Line, was a British
shipping
company with roots going back to the late eighteenth century. From the
early
twentieth century onwards an association began with P&O that
eventually
culminated in the Orient Line being totally absorbed into that company
in the
1960s. The Beginnings (1797 – 1900): The Orient
Line's beginnings
can be traced back to the formation of a shipbroking company by James
Thomson
in 1797. The company was operating a small fleet of sailing ships by
the early
1800s, and by the middle of the century they were sailing on routes all
over
the world. In 1828 Thomson was joined by James Anderson, and the
company was
renamed Anderson, Thomson and Company in 1863. The inauguration of a
liner
service to Early Twentieth Century (1900 – 1919): The
association with P&O
began at the turn of the twentieth century with the two companies
sharing an Australian
Government mail contract. Each company had a vessel sailing from Between the
Wars (1919 – 1940): It was
during the last year
of the war that P&O strengthened its interest in its partner to
gain a
majority 51% shareholding, although they continued to operate as
separate
entities until the 1960's. The Orient Line fleet was upgraded following
the war
with the purchase of second hand former German vessels from the British
Government, made available through war reparations. More new ships were
acquired in the second half of the 1920s, most built at Vickers
Armstrong Ltd
in Barrow in Furness. The company managed to trade through the
depression and
returned to profitability and new ship building in the mid 1930s. Second World War and After (1940 – 1960): The Second
World War again
saw the requisitioning of Orient Line ships, with all eight seeing
service.
Unfortunately four were lost, with the other four returning to the
England-
Australia mail service in 1947. It took a number of years for the
company's
fleet to be returned to full strength due to the slow industrial
recovery after
the war. Three new ships of 28000- 29,000 tons entered service between
1948 and
1954; the Oronsay, Orcades and Orsova. All had
increased speeds
that allowed them to reduce the sailing time from The Final
Years (1960 – 2005): Dubai World www.dubaiworld.ae P&O Group (now known as DP World) www.pogroup.com
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