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P.O.S.H. - The Ships of P&O PORT
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Welcome to our "P.O.S.H. - The Ships of P&O" website celebrating the great ships of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). The P&O Line was founded in 1840 by Brodie McGhie Wilcox and Arthur Anderson and has become one of the most famous British shipping lines and the company lived on as an independent company until 2006 when its final remnants merged with DP World (a subsidiary of Dubai World) and the company passed into history forever. As a result now only the P&O brand still lives on in the 21st century as a last reminder of this once great British shipping company. P&O over the years has produced some of Britain's greatest ocean liners and is closely associated with great ships such as Kaiser-I-Hind, Viceroy of India, Strathnaver, Strathaird, Strathmore, Canton, Himalaya, Chusan, Arcadia, Iberia and of course the legendary Canberra. This renowned shipping line has long been associated with the colonial mailship routes to India, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. In the Victorian era and the early 20th century travelling on a P&O steamship was an extension of life in the British Raj for the sahibs and memsahibs. Indeed the English term, posh, is derived from the days when influential passengers on P&O had their tickets stamped with P.O.S.H. indicating that their cabins were to be located port outwards, starboard home, thus benefiting from being on the cooler side of the ship at all times. At that time air conditioning was a long time in the future and relief from the hot temperatures experienced on these routes was only alleviated by means of fans that tended to merely circulate the warm air! Soon P&O became Britain's premier shipping company and a much loved institution of the British Empire. Over the years P&O has acquired other shipping companies and has transformed itself into a major shipping group though corporate acquisition. Some of the associated companies now contained within the P&O Group include other famous names from shipping including the British India Steam Navigation Company, the New Zealand Shipping Company, the Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand, the Orient Steam Navigation Company, the General Steam Navigation Company, New Medway Steam Packet Company, Princess Cruises, Sitmar Line, Swan Hellenic, Blue Star Line, Coast Lines and many others. In the period after the Second World War, the P&O Group diversified its activities and soon encompassed passenger shipping, cargo shipping and container shipping. In 1965 P&O was one of the British shipping companies, along with Alfred Holt's Ocean Steamship Company, Furness Withy Group, British & Commonwealth Shipping Co., that was involved in setting up Overseas Containers Ltd and it later became the sole owner of this container shipping company turning it into P&O Containers Ltd and the partner shipping company names disappeared. By the mid 1970s P&O had become involved in almost every aspect of merchant shipping and had pioneered some of the biggest changes in that industry for 150 years. It was also diversifying its activities into road haulage, ferries, ports and property. In 1970 the P&O Group underwent a reorganisation and its subsidiaries were rearranged into the following divisions: Bulk Shipping, Passenger, General Cargo, European and Air Transport, and General Holdings. In that single action many famous shipping company names disappeared. As passenger shipping declined with the advent of air travel in the 1960s and 70s, P&O embraced cruising and thus continued to flourish. Its passenger division was renamed P&O Cruises. In the 1990s P&O introduced giant cruise ships such as Royal Princess, Grand Princess, Oriana and Aurora, etc. In the 1990s P&O established a series of international joint ventures. In 1996 P&O Containers joined forces with the Dutch company Nedlloyd Line to form P&O Nedlloyd. In 1997 P&O Bulk Carriers was reformed as Associated Bulk Carriers. This was eventually sold off in 2003. In 1998 P&O Ferries joined with Stena Line to form P&O Stena Line for their English Channel ferry services. In 2000 the P&O Group divested its cruise business off as P&O Princess Cruises PLC. Cruise companies within this included P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Swan Hellenic, AIDA Cruises, Ocean Village and P&O Cruises Australia. In 2003 P&O Princess Cruises PLC merged with the American cruise giant, Carnival Corporation, and today is known as Carnival Corporation & PLC as a dual listed company headquartered in both London and Miami. This merger has created the biggest cruise company in the world with many famous cruise brands in its portfolio including P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Swan Hellenic, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, Ocean Village, Costa Line, Cunard Line, Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises, the Yachts of Seabourn and many more. In 2004 P&O's container operations became Royal P&O Nedlloyd and since have been taken over in 2005 by the A.P.Moller-Maersk Group and is now Maersk Line having merged in February 2006 with A.P. Moller-Maersk Group's own container operations (Maersk Sealand). P&O has now been a major global logistics and transport company for over 150 years since it was established in 1840. It has continually evolved and adapted to challenges in the world around it and is a survivor. Over the years P&O has grown and shrunk as it acquired companies and later divested itself and sold them off. Today the P&O Group just consists of its ferry, port and property operations. Sadly none of P&O is now British owned as its cruise business is now part of the American cruise giant Carnival Corporation & PLC which is the largest cruise company in the world. While the remainder of the P&O Group was taken over in 2006 by the Middle Eastern company Dubai Ports World. 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, a subsidiary of Dubai World. Dubai World is a holding company of the Government of Dubai. As a result P&O Ports was rebranded as DP World. However the P&O brand still remains with DP World's subsidiary P&O Maritime Services. Meanwhile the other former P&O Group subsidiaries were separated out of DP World to become subsidiaries of its parent company Dubai World. So the P&O brand also still survives with Dubai World's subsidiaries P&O Ferries, P&O Irish Sea, P&O Ferrymasters 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 / Dubai 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 although the P&O company is no more, the P&O name and house flag still continue proudly into the 21st century. |
   MENU: Brodie McGhie Wilcox (1786 - 1862) Arthur Anderson (1792 - 1868) The Story of P&O (Est. 1840) The Chairmen of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) The Mayflower Cruise Terminal (Berths 105/106 Southampton Western Docks) THE OCEAN LINERS OF P&O SS Viceroy of India (1929) The P&O Far East Sisters SS Corfu & SS Carthage The P&O White Sisters SS Strathnaver & SS Strathaird SS Strathmore (1935) SS Canton (1938) SS Himalaya (1948) SS Chusan (1950) SS Arcadia (1954) SS Iberia (1954) SS Canberra (1960) (This is an external website) THE CRUISE LINERS OF P&O MS Oriana (1995) MS Aurora (2000) MS Arcadia (2005) MS Ventura (2008) ASSOCIATED COMPANIES British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (British India Line) Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient Line) General Steam Navigation Company The New Zealand Shipping Company The Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand The New Medway Steam Packet Company Blue Star Line Coast Lines Atlantic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd Princess Cruises Sitmar Line Swan Hellenic  |
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If you have any comments about this website please feel free to contact me, Alex Naughton, via e-mail at: ajnaughton@hotmail.com This
Website is developed using historical information researched from a
wide variety of sources, including books, magazines and websites etc
too numerous to mention or credit individually. While we try our very
best to ensure that any apparent "copyrights" are
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This website does not intend to infringe any copyright and all reasonable steps are taken to ensure this to the best of our ability with limited resources. It is believed that all the information contained in this website, apart from those articles written by the author, are freely available within the public domain (on websites and in other media) or freely given for use on this website. All information on this website is purely intended to help promote the story of P&O and its ocean liners and cruise liners to a wider audience and to maritime enthusiasts and is entirely not-for-profit and is not intended for commercial gain. We warmly welcome any donations of photographs or information to this website on the basis that no financial reward is asked for or given as this website is purely for charitable not-for-profit purposes. If you have any comments or wish anything removed from or added to the website then please contact ajnaughton@hotmail.com |
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 The Red Ensign (British Merchant Navy)
Carnival Corporation &
PLC
DP World
Dubai World
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