A ROMANCE OF SHIPPING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 142, 2 November 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

A ROMANCE OF SHIPPING

HOW THE PALATIAL P. & 0. LINERS HAVE BEEN EVOLVED. To fully appreciate British push and enterprise one Ims but to scan the history of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, with its ups and downs, its meeting with, and overcoming of insurmountable difficulties, and its adherence through thick and thin to its initial principle of providing the sea-traveller with a very high-class and expeditious service.

It is a far cry back to the year 1837 —seventy-five years ago—when the P. and 0. was a small insignificant company, whose operations were confined to running mail "packets" from London to Portugal. From this small connection the P. and 0. has grown in strength until to-day it owns and controls-no less than 94 large ocean-going steamers, aggregating 468,134 tons, including some of the finest vessels trading to Australia and New Zealand. Three years after commencing its career the company extended its operations to Malta and Alexandria, and began to seriously consider entering the India trade in search of new fields for its business.

In September, 1842, the Hindostan, a small steamer of between a thousand and two thousand tons, and of only 500-h.p., was despatched from London to India,' via the Cape of Good Hope. The sailing of this vessel was regarded in the light of a national event in the Old County, and crowds of interested spectators witnessed her departure. The Hindostan was speedily followed by other steamers, and towards the end of 1844 the Company was in a position to undertake a mail service via Egypt to Ceylon, Calcutta, Penang, Singapore, Hongkong and Shanghai. This was called the "overland" route, as passengers, mails and cargo required to be forwarded overland from Cairo to Suez. The difficulties connected with this route were rapidly pvercome, although it called for« great organisation, supervision and attention to detail. Coaling stations had to be established, docks built, store establishments erected, and, in places such as Suez and Aden, even fresh water sup ; plies had to be provided. It speaks volumes for the energy and enterprise of the company that it was able to carry out with the utmost success—though under great difficulties—an' undertaking of such a novel and arduous character.

The "overland" route is described as picturesque and interesting, but somewhat uncomfortable. The conveyance of goods was very difficult, but the P. and 0. Company was nothing daunted, and went to work with a will; it was no uncommon task to get ready and despatch a caravan of 3000 camels from Cairo to Suez loaded with a single 'steamer's cargo. For nearly twenty years this system of working the company's traffic continued in operation, but it sufficed for carrying on a trade which, for the value of the merchandise in proportion to its bulk, has never been equalled. Sometimes it attained the annual value of £40,000,000!

In 1852, the first through steamer to Australia was despatched, by the commencement of a branch line from Singapore, but the most signal change in the operations of the company was brought about in 1875 by the opening of the Suez Canal, an event of which the far-reaching consequences were enhanced by the fact that it coincided with the practical adoption of. the compound engine as the motive power of the mercantile marine. The effect of these two events was to annihilate the "overland" traffic, and the financial consequences were such that for some time the future existence of the company hung in the balance. The P. and O. Company, however, determined to reorganise and endeavor to build a new fleet of steamers for the Suez Canal route. To raise a new fleet as it were from the ashes of the old ships was a undertaking, but with financial reorganisation, and commencing in a moderate way, the company was able to enter the new route given to the world by the French genius De Lessepsi

As trade increased, the company, with enterprise and push, was able to build larger and faster steamers for the Eastern and Australian trade, until to-day the P. and 0. Line is a large and growing institution. Brady, in the "Rhyme of the Road," sings of the changes which have taken place in the roads of the sea, and compares the ancient sea transit of the East with that of the present day:

'The loads they brought and carried Have left no trace of wheels, No track of stout caragues, Or deep Dutch traders' keels— . Of galleons full freighted, Of clumsy brigantines, Of jaunty India traders With silk and bugazeens.

And, where the ships of Ophir Come'sailing southward slow, Now flaunts in pride and progress The stately P. and 0. Aye, where the fearful helmsman First trimmed his lonely light, Ablaze the homeward liner Churns onward through the night,

Great attention has been -paid to the requirements of passengers, and the large palatial liners of the P. and 0. Company are first favorites with the sea traveller of to-day. The route homewards is from New Zealand to Sydney, thence to Melbourne, Adelaide, Ceylon and through the Red Sea, Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea to London. This Eastern route is very varied and enjoyable. Life on board is described by a traveller thus: "On a P. and 0. liner a traveller at once feels that he is in an admirably appointed and well disciplined ship, with all the elements of speed, comfort and safety, together with the appliances and attention of a first-class hotel, at an expense, which, compared with railway travelling and hotel life, is small indeed."

Few who have made the voyage fail to repeat their experience, and the ever increasing number of passengers on all the company's lines, attests equally the development of the public desire for travelling, and the popularity of the company's services.