The service to Egypt was quickly
inaugurated in the same year by the 1,674 ton paddle steamer
Oriental and by 1842 regular services to India were available
which involved a difficult overland journey to Suez where
a second ship was boarded for the voyage to Calcutta. By 1845
services had been extended to cover Italy, Greece, the Black
Sea, Ceylon, Madras and China.
The company's success was not
without its trials and tribulations. There were numerous lengthy
and difficult negotiations to raise money for building newer
and faster ships in order to see off the competitions. A network
of port agencies and depots had to be established along the
routes so that the ships could be administered and replenished.
The first P&O liner to reach the east was the Hindostan,
a purpose built ship with special engines. But, in those days,
it wasn't just a question of fueling and storing in England,
setting sail and eventually arriving in India after stopping
en route to refuel and replenish, there were no established
places to undertake these tasks. Sailing ships carrying coal
had to be dispatched in advance to various locations on the
route to await the steamer where it would then refuel. The
sailing ships would also carry agents to these locations where
they would arrange to purchase fresh water and provisions
for the steamer. Such was the complexities of organising the
first steamship routes.
However, these problems were
minor compared with the management of the celebrated Overland
Route across Egypt which seemed to give the company the biggest
headaches. Now that the passage from the Mediterranean to
the Red Sea is accomplished by means of a comfortable transit
through the Suez Canal it is difficult to image what it would
have been like in those early days. The transit involved a
voyage in a stuffy canal boat from Alexandria to the river
Nile, a second voyage in a bug infested steamer to Cairo then
an 84 mile journey in a cramped horse-drawn coach to Suez.
To make the overland journey as comfortable as possible for
the passengers P&O had special river steamers built, deployed
horse drawn carriages and established well-appointed rest-houses.
Remember also, it was not only the passengers that had to
be transported overland but their baggage and, of course,
the mail. The mail, however, had priority because of penalty
clauses in the contract and was transported more quickly by
camel. There were obviously complaints from the passengers
fearing that they would be delayed and miss their connection
at Suez but, all in all, the operation was a success, so much
so that, within a few years, Egypt saw a considerable influx
of tourists from Europe. Fortunately, a rail link constructed
during the 1850's eventually improved passenger comfort.
The Hindostan
Commenced sailings from Suez on
24th September1842 (P&O Lines)
The Great Liverpool
Purchased to inaugurate the Mediterranean service (P&O
Lines)
The Overland route-1845
From Capt. James Barber's book
(P&O Lines)
The success of the overland
venture opened the P&O management's eyes to the potential
of travel for pleasure and quickly established links with
the early Victorian leisure industry. In the year that Thomas
Cook ran his first railway excursion, 1844, P&O invited
a rising young novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, to embark
on an all expenses paid tour of the Mediterranean. This he
did and visited Malta, Athens, Constantinople (Istanbul),
Jerusalem and the Pyramids in Cairo. He was favourably impressed
and published accounts of his travels, firstly in a popular
magazine, and then in a travel book 'The Spanish Sketchbook:
and from Cornhill to Cairo'. Thackeray made it very clear
in the preface of his book that 'The Peninsular and Oriental
Company had arranged an excursion in the Mediterranean by
which, in the space of a couple of months, as many men and
cities were to be seen as Ulysses surveyed and noted in ten
years' and urged 'all persons who have time and the means
to make a similar journey'. A wise investment by the management
of P&O and one which sowed the seeds of a future 'cruising'
industry.
The 1850's P&O progress
rapidly but not without a certain degree of difficulty. A
malevolent and searching Parliamentary enquiry was overcome
with dignity but at the expense of time and effort. In 1852,
a mail service between Suez and Bombay was established and
also the Australian mail contract was acquired and, as it
was already active in Singapore and Chinese ports, the company
had become a powerful force in the Far East. Furthermore,
taking advantage of the advance of shipbuilding technology,
iron hulls and screw propellers, the fleet was more or less
rebuilt or refitted.
The timing of the modernisation
was fortuitous as it coincided with the outbreak of the Crimean
War which raised the price of lumbering coal and, with it,
freight rates and also the repeal of the Navigation Acts which
reserved certain routes, mainly those to the colonies, for
British shipowners. The repeal of the Act opened up trading
routes to American clippers and the British monopoly of major
sea routes was no more. However, by the turn of the decade
the company was in calmer water but about to face probably
the greatest crisis in its history.
The Lady Mary Wood
Inaugurated Far East run in 1845
Engraving by WA Delamotte (NMM)
The Nepaul 3,536 tons
Built in 1876
(P&O Lines)
Sir Thomas Sutherland
Chairman 1881-1915
(P&O Lines)
By the 1860's the company had
invested heavily in the Egyptian operation. It had established
and extensive and costly network of offices, hotels and warehouses
to provide for the comfort of the passengers making the overland
transit. In 1869 this was all made obsolete when the French
engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, completed the Suez Canal,
an achievement which many men said was impossible. P&O
faced a major problem. Not only did the company have to compete
with enthusiastic newcomers who could operate through the
canal without the constraints of the mail contract but it
had two large fleets, one for the northern European waters
and one for the tropical waters of India and the Far East.
But P&O faced the challenge
and survived. Under the skilful direction of Sir Thomas Sutherland
the company recovered by making economies. Overheads were
trimmed including the abolishment of the, hitherto, customary
free drinks at meal times. Sutherland, who was formerly the
manager in Hong Kong and went on to become Managing Director
in 1872 and Chairman in 1881, built larger and faster ships
which were more suitable for the through voyage. The United
Kingdom terminus moved from Southampton to London.
P&O soon began operating
through voyages to India, the Far East and Australia but there
was still a minor problem with regard to the carriage of the
mails. The contract stipulated that the mail had to be shipped
to Alexandria, off loaded and carried overland to Suez where
it was to be loaded onto a second ship for carriage to India.
When the canal was opened this practice still continued. The
mail was off loaded at Port Said, carried overland while the
ship proceeded through the canal and then reloaded when the
ship arrived in Suez. Typical Victorian bureaucracy which
continued until the mid 1880's.
As the Suez Canal was
effectively controlled by the Egyptians and the French who
built it, the management of P&O were very concerned that
their dominance of the shipping routes to India and the Far
East could be undermined so they negotiated to purchase a
share of the Suez Canal Company.
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