Chris Frame presented one of his series of talks on shipping with a presentation on P&O - its ships and its history.
The club's guest speaker this week was Chris Frame, a maritime historian who provided members and guests with a 200-year history of the P&O Line, from its establishment in 1823 to the present time. Commencing as a mail carrier to the Iberian Coast, in 1852 P&O won the British Government contract for the mail service to Australia. Many of P&O's ships were requisitioned in both world wars, mostly being used for troop transport. Many ships were sunk, 25 in WW1 alone. After WW2, P&O ships were used in the "Assisted Passage" scheme for immigrants to Australia. The introduction of jet airliners adversely affected all shipping lines and P&O was able to survive only by converting its fleet into cruising ships. In 2003, P&O was purchased by Carnival (American), which resulted in the renewal of the fleet and more 5-star cruises from Australia. There are two new ships due to be launched in the next two years - both three times the size of the "Titanic". A really interesting, factual address by Chris!!