Tracing our roots back to 1837


It all began in 1837 when life on the ocean waves was quite diff erent from the experience we enjoy today. But even in the times when liners were designed for cargo passage rather than holidaymakers, the movement we now know as ’cruising‘ had begun.


Although the partnership of P&O’s founding fathers, Arthur Anderson and Brodie McGhie Willcox, began some years earlier, the offi cial birth of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company is documented as 1837, when the company was awarded the British Government contract for a weekly mail service to the Iberian Peninsula. On the 4th September the company’s wooden paddle steamer, the ‘Don Juan’ set off for Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar. Three years later, in 1840, a second mail contract extended the company’s services to the East and ‘Oriental’ was added to the name – creating P&O.


These services were quickly followed by routes to Egypt, India, Greece, China, and later to Australia – extending the company’s knowledge of the world’s oceans and seas. And P&O gained a reputation for effi ciency, becoming Britain’s premier shipping company and affectionately known as the Empire Line.


As well as carrying mail, passengers could also travel, but in those times it was often out of necessity not pleasure, with foreign travel the preserve of the wealthy. Even in these early times though, Anderson and Willcox recognised the importance of good customer relations and did much to make sea travel as safe and comfortable as possible, with hearty meals and decent accommodation a priority. Sunday services were offered and benches were


placed out on deck. On board entertainment even existed in some form and whilst it was a far cry from the open air cinema, theatre productions and comedy shows found on board today, it was forward thinking for its day. It was this attention to detail and recognition of travellers’ needs that set the standard others imitated.


P&O Cruises can trace its roots back to these beginnings. Given our cruising heritage, we like to celebrate cruise traditions, many of which we introduced. When our ships cross the equator, we hold a ‘Crossing of the Line’ ceremony to ask permission from King Neptune, Ruler of the Seven Seas. You’ll still see deck games played on board. And a band always plays when we set sail from Southampton.


1840


extended the company’s services to Egypt and ‘Oriental’ was added to the company name.


A second mail contract


1845


extends further East to Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong


The company’s mail contract


1866


workforce in 10 countries


P&O has 53 steamers and 12,000 strong


1887


P&O’s Golden Jubilee celebrated with the ‘Jubilee’ class steamers


1920s


shipping company in the world, introduces the technically advanced ‘Viceroy of India’


P&O, the largest


1937


P&O celebrates its centenary


1954


Original Arcadia introduced


1837 Peninsular Steam Navigation Company awarded the British Government contract for a weekly mail service to the Iberian Peninsula


1842


The company’s mail contract extends to India


1852


‘Chusan’ paddle steamer incorporated for services to Australia


36


1870 ‘Nubia’, fi rst P&O ship to transit Suez Canal


1904 P&O offers fi rst offi cial programme of pleasure cruises with the ‘Vectis’ cruising yacht and P&O Cruises is created


1918 By the end of WWI, 83 P&O ships had been lost


1930s White hulls replace the black hulls of the past and launched fi ve ‘white sisters’


1945


By end of WWII P&O had lost more than half of its fl eet


CELEBRATING 175 YEARS


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