P&O-Orient Lines: The Southern Dominions "Big Six" and the Superliners

	P&O-ORIENT LINES The Southern Dominions "Big Six" and the Superliners

RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE THE SHIPS OF P&O
	THE PIONEERS
	P&O Line S/S Strathmore (1935)	Orient Line S/S Orion (1935)
	The long association between P&O and Orient Line 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 England to Australia every two weeks, resulting in a weekly service of fast mail ships. After the end of the First World War in 1919 P&O acquired interests in the Orient Line resulting in them gaining a majority 51% shareholding in the company. However the two companies continued to operate as separate entities until the 1960s. In the 1930s the building of the Strathmore and Orion pioneered the gradual coming together in the design of ships in the two companies' fleets. The Orion, the first to be built and was soon followed by the Strathmore. The Orion with her magnificent art deco interiors set a new standard in ocean travel for the time and introduced the famous Orient Line corn coloured livery. She was a true pioneer and set the standard for all Orient Line and P&O Line ships that followed her. She was the first Orient Line ship designed by the young New Zealander, Brian O’Rorke, who later went on to design all future Orient Line ships right up until the Oriana in 1960. Meanwhile the Strathmore, the third of the "Strath" sisters. However unlike her two predecessor "Strath" sisters, she was not turbo-electric powered like the first two Straths but reverted to conventional technology. She reverted to a single funnel design similar to the design of the Orion. Her design established a characteristic P&O appearance that was reflected in all of the future, large passenger ships of the P&O fleet that entered service until the S/S Arcadia and S/S Iberia of 1954. So the Orion and the Strathmore were both built at the Vickers Armstrong Ltd shipyard in Barrow in Furness and they set the standard for all the P&O and Orient Line ships that followed them. They truly were pioneers and officially initiated the gradual coming together in the design of ships in the two companies' fleets which continued for many decades afterwards.

	THE SOUTHERN DOMINIONS "BIG SIX"
P&O Line S/S Himalaya (1948)		Orient Line S/S Orcades (1947)



S/S Arcadia (1953)		S/S Oronsay (1950)
S/S Iberia (1954)		S/S Orsova (1953)
Ever since the Strathmore and the Orion of P&O and Orient Lines respectively were built in the 1930s there had been a gradual coming together in the design of ships in the two companies' fleets. This was even more telling in the postwar era. The Himalaya was built at Barrow in Furness alongside the Orcades. These two postwar ships marked the further coming together of the design and style of the new liners of either company in the postwar years. P&O's intention in the postwar years of upgrading the Australia services with three vessels of the Himalaya type had been rather delayed by difficulties in capacity at the British shipyards. However this ambition was finally fulfilled in 1954 with the entry into service of the Arcadia and the Iberia. Along with the Himalaya these two P&O ships had been paralleled by three nearly equivalent Orient Line ships, the Orcades, Oronsay and Orsova. Throughout the 1950s P&O and Orient Line had been moving their passenger operations to Australia ever closer together. This was reflected in a general matching of size and capability of each company's new buildings in this period. This being a necessary prerequisite to organising a balanced schedule around both fleets of ships. From January 1958 the route to Australia was extended across the Pacific Ocean in a joint service marketed under the name Orient & Pacific Line. The Himalaya inaugurated the operation, continuing from Sydney to Auckland, Suva, Honolulu, Vancouver and terminating in San Francisco before returning home via the same route. This combined the express liners of P&O and Orient Line into a Southern Dominions "Big Six" comprising the Himalaya, Arcadia and Iberia from P&O and the Orcades, Oronsay, and Orsova from Orient Line. A full merger of the two companies occured in May 1960 when P&O-Orient Lines (Passenger Services) was formed as a single entity to manage the combined fleets of pasenger liners. At this time the name Orient & Pacific Line was dropped. Thus the merger of these two dominant shipping lines operating the Australian services was reminiscent of the previous merger of the Cunard and White Star fleets in the 1930s. Then Cunard was the dominant partner and had by then taken over White Star in all but name and this ultimately led to the White Star identity disappearing altogether. Likewise in the merger of P&O and Orient Lines, P&O was the dominant partner and had held a dominant stake in Orient Lines for over 40 years. Therefore it was basically a takeover of Orient Line by P&O in all but name. Again this ultimately led to the Orient Line identity disappearing altogether. Indeed P&O completed its acquisition of Orient Line in 1965 and it became a wholly owned subsidiary. The last vestiges of Orient Line disappeared in October 1966 when the operating name P&O-Orient Lines was dropped in favour of just P&O Line. Thus Orient Line which had operated on the Australian run since 1866, having been closely linked with P&O since 1919, disappeared completely as it merged with P&O. It was the end of an era. But the Southern Dominions "Big Six" transformed the Australia service in the early postwar period and paved the way for the Superliners.

	THE SUPERLINERS
	P&O Line S/S Canberra (1960) C A N B E R R A ~ THE SHIP'S LOGO ~	Orient Line S/S Oriana (1959) O R I A N A ~ THE SHIP'S LOGO ~
In May 1960 P&O-Orient Lines (Passenger Services) was formed as a single entity to manage the combined fleets of pasenger liners. At this time both companies had a single large new liner under construction, each conceived with the trans-Pacific service in mind. These two superliners were the crowning glory of 125 years of passenger services to Australasia and were the largest and most magnificent ships ever placed on the route by any shipping line of any nationality. They were both very radical and ambitious ships in their respective ways and were radically different in appearance. It may have seemed foolhardy to build two such large ships for the Australia service at this time of increasing air travel. But the longer routes to Australia, the Far East and across the Pacific had not yet been undermined by air travel to the same extent as the transatlantic route. The new aircraft of the time did not yet have the capacity, range or fuel efficiency to seriously compete with the liners on the run to the Orient or the Southern Dominions. This would happen later in the 1960s. As things turned out both the Oriana and the Canberra were the last passenger ocean liners built at their respective shipyards. By 1956 the Suez Canal had been dredged and widened to cater for ships as large as 40,000 gross tones. Therefore both P&O and Orient commissioned ships of this size in their new liner contracts. The Orient Line ship was the Oriana, built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow in Furness and launched in 1959 and entering service in 1960. The Oriana, tested the mettle of the traditionalist in many ways, but was not so much revolutionary as evolutionary in the best sense. Few ships managed to so well combine the trend setting and traditional. Oriana was a remarkable ocean liner and was the first British ocean liner with a bulbous bow, the first ocean liner with bow thrusters and a television system. She dispensed entirely with masts and booms for cargo handling in favour of cranes and sideporters. More than 1000 tons of aluminium were used in her superstructure, the weight saving permitting an entire extra deck. Yet she also was true to many Orient Line hallmarks: the cowled funnel, the concentration of funnel and bridge structure amidships introduced in Orcades, the galleried after decks and the distinctive corn coloured hull. Her décor was coordinated by the renowned Brian O’Rorke, who had pioneered contemporary interiors in British tropical ocean liners with the Orion in 1935. Meanwhile the P&O ship was the slightly larger and equally dramatic Canberra which was built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast. However while the Oriana represented something of a departure from previous Orient Line design considerations, the Canberra represented a complete break from P&O tradition. She was revolutionary and reverted to turbo-electric machinery after a break of 30 years. She also followed tanker practice and had her engine installed at the stern to allow freedom for the designing of the passenger accommodation in the forward areas of the ship. This was completely revolutionary for a passenger liner. So the Canberra was a revolutionary and very technically advanced ship for her time and indeed was one of the first ships to have an A.C. electrical supply rather than the conventional D.C. The Canberra was launched in 1960 and entered service in 1961. With the Oriana, the Canberra continued on the Australia, New Zealand and trans-Pacific service which, from time to time, was extended to become a full circumnavigation returning to Southampton via the Panama Canal. Thus these two superliners transformed the Australia service in the 1960s and early 1970s as the Golden Age of Ocean Travel entered its swansong due to competition from air travel. In 1964 the Orient Line colour scheme of corn-cream coloured hulls was dropped in favour of P&O's white livery. Finally the name Orient Line was dropped altogether in 1966 and the company became just P&O. Thus the Oriana was the last ship ordered for the Orient Line, and the last one to fly the Orient Line flag. Thus Orient Line which had operated on the Australian run since 1866, having been closely linked with P&O since 1919, disappeared completely as a distinct entity in 1966 and was fully absorbed into P&O. However there was a final swansong as symbolically the last, largest and fastest ship of the Orient Line, the Oriana, proudly flew the Orient Line flag one last time for her final voyage prior to her retirement from ocean going service in March 1986. It was the end of an era and the Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient Line) disappeared into history forever. In the mid 1970s with increasing competition from air travel for its traditional line voyages, P&O started the transition to becoming a full time cruise company. By this time fees for the Panama Canal had increased and therefore the round-the-world run via the Pacific Ocean ended. As a result the future for the Oriana and Canberra began to look doubtful. Despite being relatively modern liners then did not find success in the American cruise market. However P&O determined as ever actively marketed the two superliners and in the end carved out niche markets for the Oriana and Canberra operating cruises from Australia and the UK respectively. Thus they successfully made the transition from ocean liners to new roles as cruise ships. In time they became two of the most popular and successful cruise ships in the P&O Cruises fleet. Of the two the Canberra survived the longest and was retired from service in 1997. Thus these two superliners transformed the Australia service in the 1960s and early 1970s and then after the end of the traditional "line voyages" they reinvented themselves as successful and popular cruise ships in the 1980s and 1990s. As a result P&O survived and later developed into a major player in the cruise industry with a significant portfolio of cruise interests. Indeed by 2000 its cruise business had become one of the top three major cruise groups and so was spun off from the main P&O Group to become a separate entity as P&O Princess Cruises plc. This later merged with Carnival Corporation in 2003 to become Carnival Corporation & PLC, headquartered in London and Miami. Today Carnival Corporation & PLC continues the legacy of P&O's cruise business and is ranked as the No1 cruise group and indeed is the largest cruise conglomerate in the world.

	Their Regular Service Route: England to India, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and North America London (Tilbury Docks) / Southampton - Gibraltar – Marseille (UK bound only) – Naples – Port Said – Suez Canal – Aden – Bombay - Colombo – Fremantle – Melbourne – Sydney - Auckland - Suva - Honolulu - Vancouver - San Francisco. P&O-ORIENT LINES THE PENINSULAR & ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY (P&O LINE) THE ORIENT STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY (ORIENT LINE)