About 1834 Messrs. Bourne, of Dublin, the principal owners of the Dublin and London Steampacket Company, were induced by the Spanish Minister in London to start a line of steamers between London and the Peninsula. They placed the management of the steamers in the hands of Messrs. Willcox and Anderson, a London firm with whom they had had some previous transactions. Messrs. Willcox and Anderson were well acquainted with the trade to the Peninsula, having been engaged in it, at first with sailing vessels, and afterwards with chartered steamers. The new line was called the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, and Mr. James Allan, then a clerk in the Dublin Office of the Dublin and London Steampacket Company, was sent to London to assist Messrs. Willcox and Anderson in the management.
The first steamer of the service was probably the Royal Tar, belonging to the Dublin and London Steampacket Company, which had been chartered in 1834 to Don Pedro, and subsequently to the Queen Regent of Spain, Messrs. Willcox and Anderson being the chartering brokers. The “Graphic” Xmas Number for 1901 states the Wm. Fawcett was the first P. & O. steamer, and the “P. & O. Pocket Book” (1900 edition) heads the list of the past and present fleet of the company with the name of the same vessel, built in 1829. It is only necessary to say here that neither the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company nor the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company were in existence at that date. The Wm. Fawcett was certainly built that year by Caleb Smith, and engined by Fawcett and Preston, both Liverpool firms. For some time she was engaged as a ferry boat on the Mersey, and in the early thirties she was employed as a regular trader between London and Dublin. She probably was chartered for a short time to the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company in 1835 or 1836, as she does not appear in the company’s advertised sailing list for 1838.
In the latter year the fleet consisted of the following vessels, from London to Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar:—Tagus, 800 tons gross, 300 h. p.; Royal Tar, 650 tons gross, 264 h. p.; Braganza, 650 tons gross, 264 h. p.; Iberia, 690 tons gross, 200 h. p.; Liverpool,[14] 500 tons gross, 160 h. p.; City of Londonderry,[14] 500 tons gross, 160 h. p. Branch steamers, Peninsula, Guadalquiver, Estrella and Sol.
In 1837 the Government advertised for tenders from steamship owners for the conveyance of the mails between Falmouth and the Peninsula, which up to that time were conveyed by sailing brigs which left Falmouth for Lisbon every week, “wind and weather permitting.” In response to this advertisement two companies, the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, and the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, sent in tenders. The former company having failed to show that it had adequate means for the efficient performance of the Postal service, the Government concluded a contract, on the 29th August, 1837, with the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, by which that company agreed to convey monthly the whole of the Peninsular mails for an annual subsidy of £29,600, afterwards reduced to £20,500. The first steamer to be despatched under this contract was the Iberia, in September, 1837, calling at Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon and Cadiz, on its passage to and from Gibraltar.
The British Government in 1839 entered into an arrangement with the French Government to send letters to and from India through France by way of Marseilles. The mails were conveyed between Marseilles and Malta by an Admiralty packet, and between Malta and Alexandria by another Admiralty packet. This arrangement did not work satisfactorily, and the Government advertised for tenders for a line of steamers, to run direct from England to Alexandria and vice versa, touching only at Gibraltar and Malta. The steamers were to be of sufficient power to perform the voyage in not more than three days beyond the time then occupied in the conveyance of the mails via France, and the cost was not to exceed the amount required for the maintenance of the small and inefficient Admiralty packets then employed.
Four competitors tendered for the contract, but that of the Peninsular Company was accepted, it being the lowest (£34,200), and containing also an offer to convey at a reduced rate all officers travelling on the public service, and bona fide Admiralty packages gratuitously.
At this time much pressure was brought to bear on the Government to induce it to subsidize a proposed line of steamers between Falmouth and Calcutta via the Cape of Good Hope. These steamers, according to the “Times” of the 11th November, 1838, were to make the passage in thirty days.
The Great Liverpool, of 1,540 tons and 464 horse power, built by Sir John Tobin, of Liverpool, and intended for the Liverpool and New York trade; and the Oriental, of 1,600 tons and 450 horse power, were the steamers offered by Messrs. Willcox and Anderson, and approved by the Admiralty, to convey mails between England and Alexandria, calling at Gibraltar, and combining the two mail services of the Peninsular and the Oriental, thus constituting the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Subsequently, the company was requested to provide two steamers, one to be not less than 250 horse power, and the other to be 140 horse power, for the Malta and Corfu branch of the mail service, which was done at a cost to the country of £10,712 per annum, less than the cost of maintaining the Admiralty packets previously employed.
In September, 1842, the P. & O. Company obtained a contract for carrying the mails between Calcutta and Suez. The contract was granted very reluctantly by the East India Company, and only after much pressure had been brought to bear on it by the Home Government.
On the 24th September, 1842, the P. & O. Company despatched its first steamer to India via the Cape of Good Hope. She was the paddle-steamer Hindostan, of 2,017 tons gross and of 520 horse power. On her arrival at Calcutta she was placed on the service between Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon and Suez. Other steamers were despatched speedily from England, and in 1844 the company was in a position to enter into another contract with the Government for a monthly service from Ceylon, to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong. For the premier service (Suez-Calcutta) the company received £115,000 per annum, or at the rate of 20s. per mile, and for the Ceylon-Hongkong service £45,000, or at the rate of about 12s. per mile.