History
In 1822 Brodie McGhie Wilcox, a London ship broker, and Arthur Anderson, a Scottish sailor, went into partnership to operate a shipping line, primarily operating routes between England and Spain and Portugal. In 1835 a Dublin shipowner named Captain Richard Bourne joined the business and the three men started a regular steamer service between London and Spain and Portugal - the Iberian Peninsula - using the name Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, with services to Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon and Cádiz.
In 1837 the business won a contract from the British Admiralty to deliver mail to the Iberian Peninsula and in 1840 they acquired a contract to deliver mail to Alexandria in Egypt. The present company, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was incorporated in that year by a Royal Charter, and its name therefore includes neither "Plc" nor "Limited".
Mail contracts were to be the basis of P&O's prosperity until the Second World War, but the company also became a major commercial shipping line and passenger liner operator.
In 1914 it took over the British India Steam Navigation Company, which was then the largest British shipping line, owning 131 steamers. Further acquisitions followed and the fleet reached a peak of almost 500 ships in the mid 1920s. 85 of the company's ships were sunk in the First World War and 179 in the Second World War.
They are pursuing opportunities for young Muslims in business which will decrease the number of young people drawn to terror for lack of job opportunity.
A good thing...hope it continues with them and other Muslim countries looking on.