The Peninsular &
Oriental Steam Navigation Company -
P & O
In 1815 Brodie McGhie Willcox,
a Shetlander with no social advantages, opened a shipbroking
office in Lime Street, London. His clerk was Arthur Anderson. By 1822 the two
were partners in a concern unsurprisingly named Willcox
and Anderson. During a prolonged uprising against the Portuguese monarchy, this
small company supported the royalists by running guns between 1824 and 1826 in
a schooner. The rebellion having been put down in 1833 normal trading was
resumed, with Willcox and Anderson receiving the blessing
of royalty. Short voyage steamships were chartered from the Dublin and London
Steam Packet Company. After further political problems in Spain, which subsided
in 1835, the Dublin and London S.P. Co. were encouraged into starting a regular
steamship mail service: which Willcox and Anderson
ran for them. These two men had already been trying to put such a service
together and with building of better suited vessels in 1836, they officially
became the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company about a year later. At this time
they also operated in the Mediterranean as far as Malta and Alexandria.
By this time,
the once commercially mighty ‘Honourable’ East India
Company
was in a financially straightened position. Having lost its monopolies and
heavily involved in the administration of vast areas of territory as a
something of a proxy government for the Crown, it had become far from capable
at fighting off efficient ‘interlopers’. So, gaining both from others’
commercially unsuccessful experiments in steamer services and also a mail
contract to Calcutta in 1839, there was large-scale capital investment in
appropriate steamers and a name change to the Peninsular and Oriental S.N. Co.
Ltd. to reflect their enlarged activities in 1840.
Further
potentially lucrative mail contracts followed, including the Ceylon to Penang,
Singapore and Hong Kong route in 1844. Five years later Shanghai became a
feeder for Hong Kong. In 1852-53 a route to Australia followed. Not that it was
all plain sailing. There was still competition from the East India Company and
also shortages of coal in the early 1850s created major problems. As well as
mail contracts, there was other government work in the form of trooping for the
Crimean War and Indian Mutiny. In 1864 a run from Shanghai to Yokohama was
begun. By 1871 the Suez Canal brought further problems, rendering most of their
vessels out of date. In response new vessels began to be built from 1873
onwards.
There had been
further wartime trooping for the Egyptian adventure of 1882. All this
experience may well have put them in good stead in government circles. Due to
naval trooping vessels being scrapped, P & O vessels were chartered for the
annual moves during the 1890s and this became a regular task Of course, P &
O also attracted their share of trooping work during the Second Anglo-Boer War
1899-1902. Increasing their market share, the assets and goodwill of the Blue
Anchor Line were acquired in 1910, with further entry into Australia from South
Africa. The summer of 1914 brought take over of the
British India S.N. Co. Ltd., which they previously enjoyed good business
relations with. (Corporate histories tend to call this an amalgamation, but
while this looks to genuinely have been the case, nevertheless, the new board
had twelve old P & O directors, to B.I.s eight.) Anyway, British India’s
trading patterns acted as feeders for P&O.
War or not, in
1916 there was the acquisition of the New Zealand Shipping Co and the Federal
S.N. Co. The next year, at a time when many companies ceased to exist, the
Union Steamship Company of N.Z., the Nourse Line and
the Hain S.S. Co. followed into P & O. In 1919
the Khedivial Mail Line was bought (but ditched five years later). Also, in the
same year a large, but minority, share holding of the Orient Line was acquired.
A North Sea short trading arm was added in 1920 with the acquisition of the
General Steam Navigation Co. Fifteen years later brought the Moss-Hutchison
Line into the group.
Nevertheless,
the group had had its share of both war and peacetime tribulations. Even if
wartime losses had been made up by government compensation there was still the not insignificant problems in rebuilding lost
business. After the Second World War there was the added complexity of air
travel as increasingly serious competition.
In 1958 there
was a short-lived name change for the passenger liner operations, followed two
years by another: to the P & O and Orient Lines (Passenger Services) Ltd.
In 1965 the group finally got full control of the Orient Line and a year later
the company became P & O, dropping the ‘Orient’ name. The group continues
to trade, but the ‘great’ liners have now gone.
This is a
commercial entity that has attracted a number of corporate histories. Among
these are Duncan Haws: Merchant Fleets
in Profile - The Ships of the P&O, Orient and Blue Anchor Lines (Cambridge: Patrick
Stephens, 1978); David and Stephen Howarth: The Story of P&O (London: Weidenfeld
and Nicholson, 1994); and Boyd Cable: A
Hundred year History of the P.&O. - Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Company (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1937).
The company
records loaned to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich are voluminous, but
those of interest genealogically are ledgers containing details of employees.
Originally these would have been complex. Primarily individual’s full company
records would have been retained onboard vessels presently served on, but there
was obviously correspondence with company offices ashore, such as at Bombay. It
also appears likely that these company offices were responsible for relaying
salient information to London, where ‘service sheets’ were made up. It is these
latter documents which have survived.
These are
large, heavy ledgers, similar to those used both by the Board of Trade and
Lloyd’s (of London). Some entries of ‘good company men’, can give immense
amounts of information and if more than one page is used these are cross
referenced, mostly in red, but sometimes in the normal black ink. Shorter
entries often reflect the company rejecting individuals, though almost as
frequently it seems that it was the individuals’ choice not to remain with the
company. Also, with past merchant shipping legislation making this mandatory in
crew-lists and agreements, although officers were not included in this, the
company also reported these internally for ratings. However, they also added
another category of report of potential interest to genealogists - sobriety.
One seemingly
almost complete element deals with seamen officers, pursers and surgeons: from
1847 until 1957. These were written up according to year of joining the company
and even though each volume is internally indexed, it is beneficial to know the
earliest date of employment. In practical terms, if one knows that an
individual worked for P & O, the ownership of each vessel served on should
be identified: in order to avoid time and effort expended needlessly. When
found, however, the standard of information recorded is normally well worth the
search. As well as dates and billets held, there are often other highly
interesting pieces of information that may give real detail as to individuals’
relationship with the company, or of course, human weaknesses. However, it
should be noted that a seemingly small number of seamen officers that
definitely served with P & O are not to be found in these
registers.
The engineers’
registers too appear to be largely complete, covering from 1845 until 1949 with
two supplementary registers reaching 1957. In the one case that I have found of
an individual missing, this was because he had been dockyard staff, signed on
as 3rd engineer and died within a few voyages onboard. Anyway, these
registers follow the same format as for seamen officers. However, it should be
noted that these ledgers also contain details of artisans, such as
boilermakers, plumbers, foremen coppersmiths and brass-finishers, as well as
apprentices. There was even one apparently unusual case of a fireman being
promoted to boilermaker.
Both from a
genealogical and sociological viewpoint the ‘stewards’ registers are also an
important body of documentation, though these are less complete and there are
major problems with them. They cover years of joining from the early 1890s
through to 1944. However, there are gaps between 1903 to 1906, 1916 to 1920,
and 1940 to 1943. Also the indexes were not part of the registers themselves
and apparently only two of these have survived: from the 1890s. So, looking for
one individual can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless, if
found the standard of information can again be very high. Also, it should also
be noted that it was not just ‘stewards’ who were recorded in these registers.
As well as a bewildering variety of stewards’ rates of the more readily
identifiable sort, such as ‘general’ stewards and a small number of
stewardesses, there were others dealing (separately) with linen, laundry and
baggage. Some stewards were also entered as musicians - pianists and violinists
are mentioned. And, many others were noted here. These included cooks,
butchers, bakers (and their mates); officers’ servants
(attached to individual departments such as engineering); waiters; storekeepers
and writers.
There are also
two registers from the ‘Deck’ department. Although seamen formed a much smaller
element of crew than either engine-room staff, or those under the Purser, it is
possible that much is missing. The first is entitled ‘Petty Officers’ and
Seamen’s Register’, written up from men engaging on P&O vessels from 1921
to 1929. Although there are entries from as early as the 1890s, there are few
of these. Curiously, it may be that keeping seamen’s ledgers was peculiar to
the 1920s. There are a number of entries where because of accident or enemy
action, earlier details of individuals’ time with the company are reported as
either not known, or imprecise. As well as seamen, both A.B.s and those rated
as Petty Officer (quartermasters, boatswains and baggage masters), there others are also recorded in this register who must
have been rated as P.O.s by the company. There are the miscellaneous, such as
‘wireless watchers’ (more commonly rated as wireless operators, or later radio
officers) and Hospital Attendants. However, there were also artisans as well -
carpenters, shipwright joiners, joiners and plumbers.
The second
‘deck’ register records P.O.s for the ten year period from June 1939 to 1949. A
card index system replaced these registers, but none of these are available, if
indeed they are still in existence.
If there were
any registers for firemen, trimmers, greasers and donkeymen
then these have not apparently survived. However, it may have been that there
was no particular reason for keeping such registers, at least of firemen and
trimmers: other than for ‘disciplinary’ reasons.
The following
give an idea of information for each type of register mentioned above:-
Example of a Seaman officer’s service with P & O
Two examples of Engineering Officers’ service with
P & O
Two examples of individuals in P & O’s
‘Stewards’ registers
One example each from P & O’s two ‘Deck’
registers
Go to the British India S.N. Co Ltd. main page
Go to the Orient S.N. Co. Ltd. main page