From humble beginnings in the 1830s, The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company grew to dominate British mercantile shipping for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Initially the company's paddle steamers carried Her Majesty's Mail, as the name impliese, to the Iberian Peninsula, but over time P&O extended its routes across the Mediterranean and onwards to the Middle East, Far East and Australasia. Besides the mail, P&O liners carried spices, silk, tea, and even opium as well as passengers. P&O came to represent the British Empire at sea, and as the Empire waned and Britain took to the air, so a golden age of travelling by sea came to an end. This new book delves into the P&O archives to take a nostalgic glance astern at all those who travelled P&O.
