the story of P
Above: Orient Cruise company Poster Opposite: Cruisers in the 1930's Below: January 1961: The previous Oriana arrives in Sydney Harbour.
P&O Cruises
&O Cruises can trace its roots back over 170 years, when life on the ocean waves was quite different to how it is today. But even in the times when
liners were designed for cargo passage rather than holidaymakers, the wheels of cruising as we know it were set in motion.
Although the partnership of P&O’s founding fathers, Arthur Anderson and Brodie McGhie Willcox, began some years earlier, the official birthday of the company is documented as September 1 1837, when the Peninsular Steam Navigation 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 sail to 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 efficiency, 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, P&O recognised the importance of good customer relations and did much to make sea travel as safe and comfortable as possible. Good food was important, as was the quality of the accommodation. Sunday services were offered and benches were placed out on deck. Daytime entertainment would involve deck quoits, egg and spoon races, tug of war and skipping contests, whilst in the evening there might be cards and a little music from a band or willing passenger (happily entertainment has moved on since those days).
It was this attention to detail and recognition of traveller’s needs, from the very early days, which became the standard others imitated, putting P&O firmly at the forefront of the minds of the travelling public.
As well as expanding the fleet to cater for the growing UK cruise market, P&O Cruises continues to adapt to changing trends ensuring that the holidays we offer are ideally suited to our British passengers of today and tomorrow.
To find out more about our heritage please visit
www.pocruises.co.uk/heritage
40 WWW.POCRUISES.CO.UK
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