PONL and the Early Development of Mail Services

P&O was established through the awarding of the contract by the Admiralty for the carriage of the mail between England and the Iberian Peninsula in August of 1837. In 1815 Brodie McGhie Willcox launched a shipping agency and broker’s office in Lim Street, London, and hired Arthur Anderson as clerk. Anderson was positioned as a partner in 1822. In 1826 Willcox and Anderson succeeded as London agents for the Dublin and London Steam Packet Company, an astute and winning steam packet company that operated between the 2 cities in its name. This link united the 3 founders of P&O: Willcox, Anderson and Richard Bourne, a figure of excellent financial insight.

In the beginning, Willcox and Anderson managed small sailing vessels to Spain and Portugal. This trade made them inclined to take sides in the 1833 civil war in Portugal and soon after in the Carlist revolution in Spain. In both situations they selected the winners and the growing company was offered trading centers and official returns from the Spanish and Portuguese royal families. In 1834, they tried to sustain the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company but later faced financial troubles.

It was the contract to take the mails to the Iberian Peninsula, offered to Bourne in particular, that allowed the company to thrive and progress into a leader in the industry. Mail contracts assured consistent profits and supplied P&O with stable returns for years to come. The mail packet ships that were available at the time were inadequate and corrupt. P&O assumed to arrive at Lisbon in 84 hours, in comparison with up to nearly a month for the mail packets, for the amount of £30,000 a year, which is considerably less than the packets. The initial operations concluded in failure when the Don Juan was ruined off the Spanish coast.  However, P&O’s name and status was improved by the bold rescue of the mails and £21,000 in cash.