Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company, one of the largest shipping companies
in the world, started life as a shipping agency business run
by two young men, Brodie Willcox and Arthur Anderson, shortly
after the Napoleonic which ended with Wellington's victory
at Waterloo in 1815.
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.
Anderson served as a Royal
Navy clerk during the Napoleonic Wars and came ashore in 1815,
penniless, but was fortunate to meet up with Willcox who had
just started his own business. By 1822 the two men had become
partners and later, in 1826, the pair became the London agents
for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co., one of the first
successful coastal steamship companies, and started a steamship
service to Portugal.
Because of the nature of their
trade to Portugal and Spain it was inevitable that they would
soon become embroiled in the tangled, and often violent, politics
of the Iberian peninsular. In the first instance the Portuguese
Queen was faced with insurrection and Anderson, the driving
force of the partnership, sided with her against the rebels.
On one occasion he refitted a half wrecked schooner and went
gun-running on behalf of the Queen and, on another, posed
as a Mr Smith and smuggled two of the Queen's agents into
England. Anderson then used his influence in the City of London
to raise funds to mount an expeditionary force which the Queen
deployed to defeat the rebellion. The partners efforts did
not go unrewarded and they were suitably endowed with numerous
royal and official favours.
Arthur Anderson (1792-1868)
Oil by TF Dicksee, 1850 (P&O Lines) Brodie McGhie Willcox
(1786-1862)
Oil by TF Dicksee, 1850 (P&O Lines) Capt. Richard Bourne,
R.N. (c1787-1850) (P&O Lines)
However, no sooner had Portugal
regained some semblance of stability, civil war broke out
in Spain. The partners sided with the legitimate Queen against
the pretender Don Carlos, and once again, were proved to be
right. When, in 1835, the Spanish Minister in London took
steps introduce the benefits of steam communication to Spain
he chartered steamships from the Dublin & London Steam
Packet Company and placed the management of the venture in
the capable hands of Anderson and Willcox, trusted servants
of the Spanish Crown. The arrangement with the Dublin &
London Steam Packet Company enabled Captain Richard Bourne
to join Anderson & Willcox and together they inaugurated
a regular service between London, Spain and Portugal under
the name 'Peninsular Steam Navigation Company'.
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
Madeira were being advertised 'for the accommodation of Invalids',
a venture which was, in reality, a gamble. The company was
providing more shipping than the existing volume of traffic
could fill in the belief that once the service was established
the passengers would follow. The policy was vindicated then
any many times on subsequent occasions. However, on the first
occasion it was an Admiralty mail contract worth £29,600
per year which kept the company solvent.
(Oil by S.D Skillett,1836)
(P&O Lines)
The William Fawcet, the first ship chartered by
Anderson and Willcox
Oil by (W.J.Huggins)
(P&O Lines)
The Liverpool coming to the aid of the Dutch vessel
Banka in 1845
The 1837 routes
(P&O Lines)
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 Britain's well known shipping companies
in the mid to late 19th century. The inaugural service operated
between Falmouth, which had become the established 'packet'
port, Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar. The mail
contracts would provided P&O with a degree of financial
security and a major source of revenue until the outbreak
of the Second World War.
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 Gibraltar on
the homeward run on 15th September the ship ran aground off
Tarifa, some twenty miles out. Apart from the mails and $21,000
of bullion, Arthur Anderson was onboard and his presence prevented
a disaster. Bargaining with the local fishermen in Spanish
he got them to carry the mail safely ashore and with the help
of a squad of Royal Marines he managed to get the bullion
unloaded.. Unfortunately, the Don Juan was lost at a cost
to the company of £40,000 as it was only partly insured.
The company's dedication
to fulfilling its obligations was rewarded when, in 1840,
it was awarded the contract for the carriage of mails to Britain's
empire in the East. 'Oriental' was added to the name and on
the 31st December,1840 the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Co., was incorporated by a Royal Charter and, today, remains
one of the few British companies not governed by the Companies
Acts.. The company's house flag, however, reflects its humble,
and somewhat precarious, origins. The blue and white quarters
represent the royal house of Portugal and the red and yellow
quarters the royal house of Spain.
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