The
Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O
Line)
(Est. 1840) |
|
RETURN TO THE LOBBY
THE OCEAN LINER VIRTUAL MUSEUM |
The
Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company (P&O) has a celebrated history dating back
to the
1830s. It was incorporated by a Royal Charter in 1840, and its name
therefore
includes neither "PLC" nor "Limited". The initials
"P&O" are among the most familiar anywhere, and its house flag,
older even than the Company itself, is one of the best known. The
history of
its first century is encapsulated in the heraldry of its Coat of Arms,
granted
in 1937, while throughout well over 160 years it has been a premier
British
shipping company, and in its time the largest and most varied in the
world. The
P&O house flag has
also become a corporate device, painted on ships and vehicles,
incorporated
into signs and badges, and used in every type of printing, stationery
and
display. The P&O logo has similarly become a bold and distinctive
design
element. Today it is that which lives on as the P&O brand while the
Company
is no more having merged into DP World. The
P&O Coat of Arms,
granted in 1937 but based on a badge used for several decades
previously,
combines the Royal colours of Spain and Portugal, and thereby its
"Peninsular" origins, with an "Oriental" rising sun as a
crest, and with devices - a lion, elephant, dragon and kangaroo - which
signify
Britain, India, China and Australia, the countries linked by its
Imperial mail
services until the Second World War. Peninsular
Beginnings (1815 – 1840): The story
of the Peninsular
& Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) started with a
handful of
paddle-steamers and a contract to carry mails, applying the technology
ushered
in by the Industrial Revolution to bring frequency and regularity to
international
communication. Carrying mails remained P&O's preoccupation for its
first
hundred years, and thereby the Company made a major contribution to a
revolution in world politics and commerce. At first it was a shipping
agency
business run by two young men, Brodie Willcox and Arthur Anderson,
shortly
after the Napoleonic which ended with Little is
known about Brodie
McGhie Willcox apart from the fact that he was a dour shipbroker.
Arthur
Anderson's life story, on the other hand, was a classic example
achievement
through self-help. Like many Victorians he was energetic and full of
entrepreneurial enterprise, recognising business potential and
exploiting it.
Born in poverty on the Shetland Isles he used his talents to create
what was to
become one of the world's largest and best known companies and to be
elected as
a respected member of the House of Commons. Because of
the nature of
their trade to However,
no sooner had From the
beginning the
company was concerned with the comfort and welfare of the passengers.
Models of
the ship's accommodation could be inspected at the company's head
office 'by
which a Passenger may see at once the size and situation of any cabin
or
bed-place as well as if he were on board the ship'. On every ship a
complaints
book was prominently displayed and passengers requested, in four
languages, to
note 'any want of civility or attention on the part of the cabin
attendants, or
any want of cleanliness in the cabins or bed or table linen or scarcity
in the
provision department' By 1836
weekly sailings to The
British government's
contract to carry the mail to the Iberian peninsular was signed on 22nd
August,1837. Signed by Richard Bourne on behalf of the company, this
was the
first mail contract awarded to a commercial shipping company, the first
of many
contracts which promulgated the foundation of many of However,
the first mail run
was almost the last. The pride of the company's fleet and one of two
steamers
advertised as 'the largest and most powerful yet put afloat', the 933
tons Don Juan sailed
on 1st September to
inaugurate the mail service. After leaving The
company's dedication to
fulfilling its obligations was rewarded when, in 1840, it was awarded
the
contract for the carriage of mails to Oriental
Extension (1840 – 1870): The service to The company's success was not without its
trials and
tribulations. There were numerous lengthy and difficult negotiations to
raise
money for building newer and faster ships in order to see off the
competitions.
A network of port agencies and depots had to be established along the
routes so
that the ships could be administered and replenished. The first P&O
liner
to reach the east was the Hindostan,
a purpose built ship with special engines. But, in those days, it
wasn't just a
question of fuelling and storing in However, these problems were minor
compared with the
management of the celebrated The success of the overland venture opened
the P&O
management's eyes to the potential of travel for pleasure and quickly
established links with the early Victorian leisure industry. In the
year that
Thomas Cook ran his first railway excursion, 1844, P&O invited a
rising
young novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, to embark on an all
expenses paid
tour of the The 1850's P&O progressed rapidly but
not without
a certain degree of difficulty. A malevolent and searching
Parliamentary
enquiry was overcome with dignity but at the expense of time and
effort. In
1852, a mail service between The timing of the modernisation was
fortuitous as it
coincided with the outbreak of the Crimean War which raised the price
of
lumbering coal and, with it, freight rates and also the repeal of the
Navigation Acts which reserved certain routes, mainly those to the
colonies,
for British shipowners. The repeal of the Act opened up trading routes
to
American clippers and the British monopoly of major sea routes was no
more.
However, by the turn of the decade the company was in calmer water but
about to
face probably the greatest crisis in its history. By the 1860's the company had invested
heavily in the
Egyptian operation. It had established and extensive and costly network
of offices,
hotels and warehouses to provide for the comfort of the passengers
making the
overland transit. In 1869 this was all made obsolete when the French
engineer,
Ferdinand de Lesseps, completed the Suez Canal, an achievement which
many men
said was impossible. P&O faced a major problem. Not only did the
company
have to compete with enthusiastic newcomers who could operate through
the canal
without the constraints of the mail contract but it had two large
fleets, one
for the northern European waters and one for the tropical waters of But P&O faced the challenge and
survived. Under
the skilful direction of Sir Thomas Sutherland the company recovered by
making
economies. Overheads were trimmed including the abolishment of the,
hitherto,
customary free drinks at meal times. Sutherland, who was formerly the
manager
in P&O soon began operating through
voyages to As the Suez Canal was effectively
controlled by the
Egyptians and the French who built it, the management of P&O were
very
concerned that their dominance of the shipping routes to The
Exiles Line (1870 – 1914): The liners at that time were not fast like
their
counterparts on the The passenger lists at the time would be
made up of
civil servants bound for India, diplomats, soldiers, bankers,
industrialists,
missionaries and young ladies who were affectionately referred to as
the
'fishing fleet'; young ladies looking for husbands who, if they failed
to get a
catch were then known as the 'returned empties'. The captains for the
vessels
were only responsible to God and the Board of Directors, and complaints
were
not welcomed. P&O was Queen Over the years that followed P&O
continued to grow
in size due, in many respects, to corporate acquisition. The Blue
Anchor Line,
which, for years, had carried immigrants to From
Company to Group (1914 – 1946): Another major company operating on the
eastern routes
was the British India Line and in 1914 the two companies merged. At an
extraordinary general meeting convened to approve the merger the
Chairman of
P&O said the following . 'It means that we (the merged group)
command the
employment of capital of 15 millions sterling. It means that we command
the
employment of a tonnage of a million and a quarter tons, and this
tonnage and
this capital will be worked with a common aim and purpose for the
prosperity of
a great national enterprise.' The expansion continued and by the end of
the First
World War the P&O Group had acquired the New Zealand Shipping
Company in
1916, the Union Steamship Company of The acquisition policy continued after the
war and in
1919 the company acquired interests in the Orient Line and the
Khedivial Mail
Company. In 1920 the General Steam Navigation Company, the oldest
steamship
company to run regular deep sea services, joined the group. It is
significant
to note that the small steamers of the GSNC were were chartered by
Anderson and
Willcox in the early days. By the mid 1920's and under the Chairmanship
of Lord
Inchcape who headed the company from 1915 until 1932, the combined
fleets
reached a peak of nearly 500 ships in a variety of trades. Along with most other companies, P&O
was affected
by the downturn of the British economy and the world depression which
followed
the Wall Street crash in 1929. Labour disputes delayed the expansion of
the
fleet and the conversion from coal to oil. The annual report for 1931
made bad
reading and listed a catalogue of disasters to give any board of
directors
sleepless nights. Major flooding of the River Yangtse prevented access
to
Hankow. Depression in Malaya and To meet the crisis a 10 percent pay cut
was imposed on
all employees and there was no payment of dividends on preferred shares
from
1932 to 1935. But in 1935 the Chairman saw 'a glimmer of light ahead'
and in
the next year salaries were restored to their former levels and
dividends were
paid. As the economy revived so did the fortunes of P&O and the
company had
the courage to expand the fleet with the addition of five new passenger
liners
the names of which began with the prefix 'Strath'. The arrival of the
new
liners also heralded a change of livery to the now familiar white hulls
with
yellow funnels and masts. Other changes saw the company's main
operating routes
shift from India to Australia, 'Second Class' being referred to as
'Tourist
Class' and Australian passengers encouraging the introduction of deck
games. In
1937 P&O celebrated its centenary with enthusiasm and optimism. At the outbreak of the Second World War
the group
operated over two million tons of shipping but over half of this, 182
ships in
all, was lost during the hostilities. 1940 saw the company being
re-incorporated
as P&O-Orient Line but with both companies maintaining a degree of
autonomy
until 1960. In fact most of the companies which comprised the P&O
Group
continued to maintain separate identities, identities which kept them
in touch
with their origins. P&O operated passenger and cargo-liner services
to The
Sea is for Cruising (1905 – 1985): The Orient
Steam Navigation
Company, acquired by P&O at the end of 1918, had begun cruises to
the
Mediterranean and to In the
1880's the North of
Scotland shipping company of Aberdeen and the Orient Line of London,
both later
to be taken over by P&O, pioneered modern-style cruises returning
to their
ports of departure, and in 1904 the Company itself offered its first
cruise
programme: First Class only with shore excursions arranged by Thomas
Cook,
using the 23-year-old liner Rome, renamed Vectis in
her new role
as a "cruising yacht". Between the Wars cruising became more popular,
often using the newest ships in the fleet rather than the oldest. P&O
cruises began in
1904 with Vectis (5,545 tons), built in 1881 as The
Viceroy
of With no
rigid mail contracts
after 1945, cruising became still more important. P&O's last ship
built for
scheduled line voyages, Canberra, was delivered in 1961, and
helped to
enlarge the Group's passenger services in the Pacific, but even she and
her
one-year-older consort Orient Line's Oriana spent a growing
amount of time
cruising. At the same time the British India Company, with surplus
troopships
on its hands after the ending of their Government contracts, renewed
the idea
of educational cruising for parties of school children. During 36
years in service,
from 1961 to 1987, the 45,000-ton The Oriana
(41,915 tons,
built 1960) was the last passenger liner ordered for the Orient Line,
and
entered service in its distinctive "corn" hull colours, introduced in
1935. In the interests of uniformity they gave way to P&O white in
the mid
1960s when the two passenger operations were combined, though a similar
colour
was revived for P&O cargo ships a decade later. In little
more than a decade
jet airliners took over P&O's traditional passenger trades while
the
container ship picked up cargoes including those formerly carried by
passenger
liners. These developments had an enormous effect on the Group and were
a key
reason for its subsequent diversification as well as its concentration
on the
leisure side of sea travel. P&O abolished separate passenger
classes in the
early 1970s, acquired Los-Angeles-based Princess Cruises in 1974,
bought and
later built purpose-designed cruise ships and became one of the largest
cruise
operators in the world. The
44,348-ton Royal
Princess was named by HRH The Princess of Wales at Cargo Shipping and Ferries
(1946 – 1985): For thirty
years after the
Second World War the greatest proportion of P&O's investment was in
cargo
ships - conventional and refrigerated cargo liners, tramps, bulk
carriers,
tankers, liquefied gas carriers and especially container ships. While
traditional cargo ships remained in service with the Group until the
early
1980s, it was as a co-founder and later owner of Overseas Containers
Ltd (OCL),
that P&O pioneered the biggest change in cargo shipping in its
entire
existence, not merely converting all its dry cargo liner routes to
container
operations over a period of about 15 years, resulting in a substantial
reduction in the number of ships and the sale or scrapping of its
entire
conventional fleet, but also establishing the necessary on-shore
infrastructure
of container ports, inland depots, and road, rail and inland waterway
transport
links. Having
entered the tanker
trades in 1959, with ships at first owned and operated by individual
Group companies,
P&O set up Trident Tankers in 1962 to manage the fleet, but by the
mid-1970s had withdrawn from the crude oil business although it kept
its
interest in the Panocean parcel tanker concern, set up in 1969, until
the early
1980s. It’s expensive and ultimately unprofitable involvement in
liquefied gas
carriers similarly lasted only a decade and a half, from 1972 to 1986,
and its
most enduring venture into bulk shipping involved dry bulk carriers,
first as
partners in Associated Bulk Carriers in 1965, for which the Hain and
Nourse
companies were merged (as Hain-Nourse, what else!) to operate P&O
Group-owned ships, and from the early 1980s until 1998 as sole owner of
one of
the leading operators of "capesize" tonnage under the P&O Bulk
Carriers name. In the mid
1960's the Group
began to invest in roll-on/roll-off ferries, initially in the North Sea
Ferries
and Normandy Ferries partnerships (both later wholly-owned), but also
on its
own account as its conventional short-sea cargo vessels were phased out
in
favour of ro-ro tonnage in the 1970s. By then the Group had at one time
or
another owned practically every kind of merchant ship except
icebreakers, an
omission rectified when an Antarctic supply and research vessel, Aurora
Australis, was delivered in 1990. Reorganisation,
Diversification and Retrenchment (1971
– 2000): In the 1950s Furness Withy Group along
with Blue Star Line and British & Commonwealth Shipping Group owned
72% of British United Airways (BUA). The remaining 28% was
shared among the Clan Line (8%), Loel Guiness (10%) and Whitehall
Securities (10%). But in 1961 these various shareholdings were
reorganised into Air Holdings as a new holding company for the entire
group. In January 1962, British Aviation Servies joined Air Holdings.
Britavia and Silver City Airways were its airline subsidiaries. P&O
Group was the largest shareholder with a 70% stake, while Eagle Star
and Cable & Wireless were minority shareholders that respectively
owned 20% and 10% of its share capital. In 1962, Jersey Airlines,
a former "BEA associate", and Silver City Airways joined the BUA group
of companies. The operations of these airlines were reorganised into
BUA (C.I.), British United (Manx) Airways and British United Air Ferries
(following the merger of Channel Air Bridge and Silver City Airways on
1 January 1963. In late 1964, Air Ferry
joined the BUA group of companies as a consequence of Air Holdings'
acquisition of Leroy Tours, Air Ferry's owners, thereby restoring the
cross-Channel vehicle ferry services monopoly of British United Air
Ferries. In 1971
the P&O Group
was reorganised into five "operating divisions": Bulk Shipping,
General Cargo, Passenger, European & Air Transport, and General
Holdings.
During the following twenty years, the General Cargo and General
Holdings
divisions both disappeared, Passenger Division was renamed P&O
Cruises, and
"E&AT" was split between Ferries and European Transport, the
latter primarily concerned with door-to-door road haulage under the
Ferrymasters
and Pandoro names. Significant
investments were
also made in completely different fields, including a short-lived
Energy
Division involved in North Sea oil exploration and The Bovis
group of
companies, acquired in 1974, included construction management,
housebuilding
and property, primarily in the Bovis
Construction, part of
P&O from 1974 until 1999, was awarded the management contract for
construction of the new Lloyd's Building in In 1983
Jeffrey (later Sir
Jeffrey, now Lord) Sterling became Chairman of P&O, and in 1985
merged his
company Sterling Guarantee Trust with P&O. SGT included the
management and
development arms of Town & City Properties, with substantial
investments in
the USA, and Earls Court & Olympia's exhibition and conference
centres, as
well as warehousing, which was absorbed into P&O's European
Transport
Services division, and UK-based contract caterers and tool
distributors, both
sold in 1993. P&O's property interests were further expanded in the
late
1980s, although substantial disposals were made later, Shipping
to the Core (1985 – 2000): In the
years following the
merger with SGT, P&O developed in all its major areas of activity,
by both
organic growth and strategic acquisitions, while also divesting itself
of a
number of non-core operations. In
shipping, it bought out
its partners in Overseas Containers in 1986, purchased ferry, property
and
harbour group European Ferries in 1987, and doubled the size of
Princess
Cruises with the acquisition of the cruise line Sitmar in 1988. It
acquired
first a half-interest and then total ownership of short-sea tanker
operator
Rowbotham Tankships, though this was later sold, and bought most of the
Cunard
Ellerman container shipping interests from Trafalgar House in 1991. A series
of international
joint ventures was established. P&O Containers merged with the
Dutch
company Nedlloyd Lines at the end of 1996 to form P&O Nedlloyd, one
of the
three largest container shipping companies in the world, further
enlarged by
the acquisition of Blue Star Line in 1998. P&O Australia revived
the old
name International Offshore Services for an offshore supply vessel
company set
up with the Norwegian concern Farstad in December 1997. In March 1998
P&O
and the Swedish company Stena merged their ferry services across the
Straits of
Dover due to growing competition from the Channel Tunnel; and in bulk
shipping
another old identity, Associated Bulk Carriers, was revived in July
1998 for a
joint venture with the Chinese steel group Shougang to produce the
world's
largest fleet of "capesize" vessels, though in April 2000 P&O
bought out its Asian partners. A fleet
renewal and
expansion programme for P&O Cruises reached a new peak in May 1998
when the
world's then largest-ever cruise ship, the 109,000 ton Grand
Princess,
was delivered to Princess Cruises. By the time of the demerger of the
cruise
businesses in October 2000, a further nine cruise vessels were on
order,
including two for Aida Cruises, a German concern in which P&O had
taken a
controlling interest in 1999. The
on-going P&O Group
was also renewing its fleet. By the end of 2000, two 60,000-ton
ferries, the
largest in the world, had been delivered for the North Sea, and two
smaller
ferries for Ports and Logistics (1975 –
2000): P&O's
presence in P&O
has a long
involvement in conventional port operation in P&O
Cold Logistics
originated from the provision of cold storage for export meat handled
by
P&O's stevedoring interests in In From
Company to Brand Name (2000 – 2006): P&O
itself has continued
to change. A new joint venture involving its bulk carrier interests was
announced at the end of 2000, while 2001 saw the delivery of two of the
largest
ferries in the world for the North Sea and the winning of the port
concession
at Chennai in During
2002 P&O further
expanded its ports business in Asia and Europe and its cold logistics
interests
in the In 2003
there were further
port acquisitions in Substantial
property
disposals continued in 2004, as well as the sale of P&O's resort
interests
in In March
2006 P&O and
all its assets were bought by DP World one of the world's fastest
growing
marine terminal operators. The new combined organisation is the third
largest
of its kind worldwide with 52 terminals in 30 countries. However the
North American
ports were separated off into a separate company called P&O Ports
North
America Inc. due to controversy with the US Government. This company
was sold to AIG Global Investments Group on the 11th December 2006. On
the 17th October 2006 the P&O
Company
disappeared into history as it merged with DP World. The P&O Ports
subsidiary was rebranded as DP World. However the P&O brand still
remains
with DP World's subsidiaries P&O Ferries, P&O Irish Sea,
P&O
Ferrymasters, P&O Maritime Services and P&O Estates. Sadly today in the 21st century P&O Princess Cruises PLC and the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company are no more having been taken over by Carnival Corporation & PLC and DP World respectively. But despite this the P&O house flag remains an internationally recognised symbol of excellence and the brand P&O lives on in the surviving remnants of the once mighty P&O empire: P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, P&O Ferries, P&O Irish Sea, P&O Ferrymasters, P&O Maritime Services and P&O Estates. Brodie McGhie Wilcox and Arthur Anderson surely will be proud of the achievements of their company over the years. They will no doubt be pleased that the company name and house flag continue proudly into the 21st century.
Related
Websites: P&O Group: Dubai World
P&O
Group (now known as
DP World)
Subsidiaries: P&O
Ferries P&O
Irish Sea P&O
Ferrymasters P&O
Maritime Services P&O
Estates P&O Princess Cruises
PLC: P&O
Princess Cruises PLC
(now known as Carnival Corporation & PLC)
P&O Subsidiaries: P&O
Cruises Princess
Cruises
P&O
Cruises AIDA www.oceanvillageholidays.co.uk
Carnival Corporation
Subsidiaries: Carnival
Cruise Line
Costa Line Windstar
Cruises (sold to Ambassador International in February 2007) Cunard Line
The Yachts
of Seabourn Former
P&O Subsidiaries: P&O
Ports North America
Inc. (now owned by AIG Global Investments Group) Royal
P&O Nedlloyd (now
known as Maersk Line) P&O
Resorts (now known
as Voyages Hotels & Resorts) La Manga
Club Bovis Group Associated
Bulk Carriers
(now known as Eurotower Holdings S.A.) International
Offshore
Services (now known as Farstad Shipping) P&O
Trans European (now
known as Wincanton PLC) P&O
Cold Logistics (now
known as Versacold Holdings Corp.) P&O
Ports (now known as
DP World) Sterling
Guarantee Trust Companies
taken over by
P&O: British
India Steam
Navigation Company ( The New
Zealand Shipping
Company Federal
Steam Navigation
Company Union
Steam Ship Company of Hain
Steamship Company James
Nourse Orient
Steam Navigation
Company (Orient Line) Mercantile
Steamship Company Khedivial Mail Company Blue
Anchor Line General
Steam Navigation
Company Strick Line Moss
Hutchison Line New Medway
Steam Packet
Company Eastern
& Australian
Steamship Company North of
Scotland, Orkney
& Shetland Shipping Company Princess
Cruises Trident
Tankers Associated
Bulk Carriers Southern
Ferries Townsend
Thoresen Ferries European
Ferries Group Bovis Group Sterling
Guarantee Trust Overseas
Containers Ltd Sitmar Line Rowbotham
Tankships Cunard
Ellerman Container
Shipping Atlantic
Steam Navigation
Co. Ltd Coast
Lines Group Blue Star
Line AIDA
Cruises Swan
Hellenic Rhenania Group
|