Carrying The Royal Mails
For over 400-years the British Post Office either managed or contracted the conveyance of overseas mails from Britain which over the years had developed into an extensive network. It was a system based on sailing ships, or ‘packets’ as they became known. In 1823 to ensure greater security the British Government began to transfer responsibility for the mails to the Admiralty.
By 1836 with a fortnightly service of steamships in operation, Wilcox and Anderson turned their attention to procuring a contract to convey the Royal Mails to the Peninsular. Initially rejected, their tender was finally accepted by the Admiralty in 1837 and a contract was awarded to carry the mails from Falmouth in England to the Peninsular ports of Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar,. The contract was signed on 22 August 1837 and this date is accepted as the founding date of P&O. The first vessel to open this service was the 800-ton paddle-wheel steamship DON JUAN.
Three years later in 1840 the company was awarded a new contract to extend the service from Gibraltar to the Egyptian port of Alexandria via Malta. The new contract required that the voyage from England to Alexandria be accomplished in 15 days. The first vessel to open this service was the newly built 1,787-ton paddle-wheel steamship ORIENTAL which was so named to reflect the Company’s arrival in the East. At the same time the name of the firm was changed to the now familiar Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, (P&O)
P&O next won the contract to carry the mails from Egypt to Madras, Ceylon, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, commencing the eastern service in 1844 with the 2,018-ton paddle-wheel steamship HINDOSTAN. For this new contract P&O was required to provide steamers to take the mails from Suez to Hong Kong within 35-days. Five years later the mail service was extended to include Japan.
The logistics of this vast mid 19th century network of shipping routes, stretching from the United Kingdom to Hong Kong was astonishing. It was known as the ‘Overland Route,’ in deference to the passage across the Isthmus of Egypt. The Suez Canal was still some 25 years away from being constructed, and the company was required to construct specialized ships to cope with the differing circumstances of European, Mediterranean and Eastern waters, and as well the enormous logistical facilities required for the overland journey through Egypt.
At Alexandria, the mails, passengers, their baggage and all cargo was off-loaded from the London steamer. Baggage, bullion, mails and cargo was shipped directly across the desert by camels to Suez. At the height of the season no less than 3,000 camels with their handlers, attendants and guards would be required to transport these seemingly endless caravans across the desert sands.
Passengers however would be taken on the 200-mile journey down to Cairo in barges, first by horse-drawn ‘track boats’ along canals, then on reaching the River Nile transferred to river steamers. A day or two was spent in Cairo to refresh, to visit the pyramids before taking the nightly 80-mile dash across the desert to Suez in relays of horse drawn caravans. At Suez they rejoined their baggage and embarked on another ship to continue the voyage. In these early days of steamship travel to India and the East, the ‘overland’ route became the source of legend, romance and intrigue.
In association with the overland passage, and to manage the ships en-route P&O established a network of coaling stations, docks, repair facilities and shore establishments. This involved a system of gathering, storing and provisioning the ships with all the requirements needed for a voyage from fuel, food and linen to fresh water which at many of the ports was a commodity in short supply. The logistics to maintain and manage this vast network of services placed P&O as a leader in the development of early ocean steamship routes and the design and construction of specialised ships to sail on them.
Australia, however, was not yet part of this world-wide pattern of steamship mail contracts. For over 60 years since the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Australia was without a regular and efficient method of sending or receiving ocean borne mails or transporting passengers. The Continent was isolated and far from any of the world’s major shipping routes.
For decades the colonies of Australia and their friends around the world argued, debated, petitioned the Queen and Parliament in London and eventually had Select Committees formed in Australian Colonial Legislatures and Parliament in London to decide the matter. The seas to Australia for steamships had been untried, many routes were suggested, doom and gloom was predicted, companies were formed and evaporated, capital was invested and lost. The Australian colonies were not helped with the endless debates as to whether one colony should have precedence as to the most important port for the delivery of mails.
Finally, in 1851 the Admiralty called for tenders and subsequently awarded P&O the contract to open an Australian mail service to operate twice monthly from Singapore to Sydney via Batavia, King George's Sound, Melbourne and return via the same ports. The sailings were organised to connect with the long haul Suez-Hong Kong-Suez service, and was inaugurated by the 699-ton iron screw steamer CHUSAN which made an historic passage from Southampton and arrived in Sydney on 3 August 1852, departing on the first service to Singapore on 31 August 1852.
Since then P&O has maintained an unbroken record of commitment to Australia interrupted only by the constraints of war. A record unequalled by any other shipping company. In 1877 the Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient Line,) entered the England to Australia service with the first direct steamship service with their 3,877-ton iron screw steamer LUSITANIA, which arrived in Sydney in August 1877 after an epic non-stop voyage from England via the Cape of Good Hope; this voyage inaugurated the first regular service by a steam ship on the long haul to Australia and proved once and for all that steamships could make the voyage without mechanical problems, or resorting to sails whilst engines were rested or repaired.
Founded in 1878, the Orient Line was primarily the creation of two London shipowners who looked to Australia as the land of boundless opportunity, a land which they considered would best be served by a regular line of full-powered steamships. Many had tried the difficult long-haul passage from England to Australia with auxiliary steamships of inconsistent power and inadequate machinery with mixed results that had little effect against the proven record of the famous clipper sailing ships.
Since the early 1850’s the two firms of Anderson, Anderson & Co., and Frederick Green and Co., had been operating sailing ships on the Australian route. Anderson’s had brought to Australia the ‘Orient Line of Clipper Ships,’ whilst the Green’s were associated with the Blackwall Line sailing both to Australia and India. Both of these Lines are prominent in the history of Australian shipping.
In 1877 the two firms jointly chartered four surplus steamships, LUSITANIA, CHIMBORAZO, CUZCO and GARONNE, from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company which operated from Liverpool to the Pacific Coast of South America. The first three of these made very successful full-powered return voyages to Australia, and in record time without the use of sail power. This prompted the companies to form the Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient Line) under the management of Messrs Anderson and Green in 1878 the GARONNE made the first sailing for the new Orient Line.
In the history of steamships to Australia it is important to understand the significance of the Orient Line. In competition with the established P&O, the Orient Line brought many advantages to the trade which others followed. In time the construction of their ships fulfilled the Australian ideal of openness with their large amounts of deck-space for outdoor sports. The line became a favourite of many Australians for its lack of formality and the design of its ships. The first steamship built for the fledgling Orient Line was the notable 5,386-ton ORIENT in 1879. She was the largest steamship in the world to be constructed since the ill-fated GREAT EASTERN 21-years before in 1858. On her first voyage to Australia the ORIENT drew some of the largest crowds the colonies had witnessed, she was a sensation and remained a favourite with Australians until her withdrawal from the service in 1909.
In association with P&O, which purchased a majority share in the Orient Line in 1917, the two companies maintained an alternate weekly departure in each direction between England and Australia, and return. This joint Royal Mail Steamship service is of major importance in the study of Australian shipping history and survived until the urgency associated with transporting the mails was transferred from ships to jet-aircraft in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
The 1920’s saw a dramatic change in the on-board class profile of both the P&O and Orient Line vessels. P&O began a process of changing Second Class to Tourist Class and the Orient Line followed with the changing of their Second and Third Class to a combined Tourist Class. As new ships came into operation, older ships were converted to a then innovative one class.
In 1954 the Orient Line ventured into new waters when the 27,632-ton ORONSAY made the historic voyage from Sydney across the Pacific to San Francisco and return. The voyage proved an enormous success and was soon followed by other ships including P&O’s 27,955-ton HIMALAYA in March 1958. This joint trans-Pacific service was briefly known as the Orient & Pacific Line.
An extension of this highly successful route was the ORONSAY undertaking the group’s first round world voyage in 1958, followed by the HIMALAYA in 1959, utilising both the Suez and Panama Canals and further expanding the new North American market.
A rationalisation of their world-wide services occurred in 1960 when the passenger division of P&O and the Orient Line merged to create P&O – Orient Lines. This new arrangement remained in place until 1965 when the name returned to the historic P&O.
