P&O continued to provide liner servi­ces during World War I. German submarines operating in the Mediterranean took their toll, the ships being targeted on outward and homeward voyages to the Orient and Australia, often after the usual Malta call. Simla was lost on April 2, 1916, 45 miles northwest of Gozo. Other war losses in the Mediterranean were Arabia, Persia, Pera and Mooltan.

After World War I, the Admiralty took over most of Marsamxett Harbour and P&O joined other shipping in the Grand Harbour, to be berthed by the Mediterranean mooring  method (anchored, and with stern ropes to bollards) at Barriera Wharf, Valletta, and when available, on Admiralty buoys.

Such was the clout of P&O that it had its own Maltese harbour pilots and, until they were withdrawn in the 1960s, only trusted Admiralty harbour tugs for berthing in Grand Harbour. Most of the captains were former Royal Navy commanders. It was said of them that they “derived their authority from God and the P&O board, especially the former”.

The Valetta of 1884 was the first P&O ship fitted with electric light.

As regular callers, P&O captains were familiar with the island. Ballou recounts the story, of which he was a witness, of the captain who asked a lady whether she would be going ashore while the ship was coaling. She asked if she could buy a Maltese dog ashore but the captain averred that they were scarce. “Then I’ll remain on board, there’s nothing on the island worth seeing, I believe”, to which the captain quietly replied: “Some people come thousands of miles to visit the place, its history is very curious.” She asked if there were any palaces, and the captain said there were over half a hundred. She also believed there was some old lace on the island, but thought she could get the same in London. To which the captain replied: “Oh, yes, and perhaps you will be able to find a puppy to your liking, in London.”

P&O ships’ names generally re­flected the geographical breadth of its services and the Commissioners’ (as the company directors were called) love affair with far flung, exotic places like Chusan, Himalaya, Rawalpindi and Mooltan. The fleet list reads like an atlas of Europe and the British Isles, the Levant, Africa, India, the Far East and Australia. There were also ancient names for places like Vectis and Melita, the Latin names for the Isle of Wight and Malta.

Apart from Melita, P&O had two ships called Malta and two called Valetta. There was also a Medina. The first Malta was an iron paddle steamer built in 1848. The second was built in 1895. The first Valetta, a wooden paddle steamer built in 1853, was employed on the Marseilles-Alexandria service. The second Valetta of 1883 had the distinction of being the first P&O ship to be fitted with electric light. Interestingly, P&O built minor craft in Malta, including water boats and lighters and the steam launches Attaka and Sphinx for service at Aden and Suez.

When the Medina was completed in October 1911 she was taken over as a royal yacht for the voyage of King George V and Queen Mary to the Delhi Durbar. The name Medina has been taken to refer to the Arabic name for Mdina, Malta’s ancient capital. It could also be a reference to Al Madinah, the Islamic Holy City in Saudi Arabia, where the Prophet Mohammed was buried. There is also a river called Medina in the Isle of Wight and it is the name of a suburb of Perth in Western Australia.

HMS Defender sails past Chusan in Grand Harbour in June 1953.

The ship was fitted out as a royal yacht, the hull was repainted white, and an extra third mast was added to carry the royal colours. Her interiors were enhanced with furnishings from the royal collection, as well as from the royal yacht Victoria and Albert. The ship called at Malta on January 24, 1912, on the royal couple’s homeward voyage from India.

Another P&O vessel with a Malta connection was the humble tug/launch Notabile, built by Paschal Grech at Senglea in 1883. Notabile is the mediaeval name for the ancient capital Mdina.

The rigours of the Bay of Biscay could be avoided by taking the train to Marseilles and boarding from there. The Mediterranean was passable but the Red Sea was hell in the days before forced draught ventilation and air conditioning. There is an unproven P&O tradition that the well-heeled booked a port cabin for the outward voyage; for the homeward voyage they booked starboard. When allocating cabins the purser would find P.O.S.H. stamped on the ticket, the acronym being derived from P (port) O (out) S (starboard) H (home).

Rudyard Kipling wrote The Exiles’ Line, an 18-stanza poem on P&O.

The celebration of 180 years of the foundation of P&O is a significant milestone in the shipping world. The company has been variously described as the Flagship of Imperialism, Postman to the Empire, The Linchpin of Imperial Communications, An Extension of the Raj and the Cunard of the East. In 1890 Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) wrote The Exiles’ Line, an 18-stanza poem on P&O.

As a child of Empire, Kipling knew well about the self-sacrifice of the India jobs, the separated families, the children left behind at boarding schools. Not much glamour then for those who were forcibly separated from families to work in the colonies and far flung outposts of Empire. Their voyages crossed time zones and climates. P&O carried governors, maharajahs and their retinues. The passenger lists were a mosaic of British activities. In 1904 it was said that two-thirds of the company’s passengers travelling to India were government officials.

Over the years, P&O also carried several thousand Maltese ‘exiles’ – emigrants to Australia, many of whom travelled on assisted passages. For most of them the ships offered a first taste of a different way of life where English was necessary for communication.

After World War II a young emigrant sent home a postcard. He described the public rooms, and exhorted his schoolmates back in Malta to learn English, the language used aboard. Until the advent of air travel P&O also offered the Maltese a gateway to London. The company’s agency advertised cheap fares from Malta to the capital, depending on the availability of cabins on homeward or outward voyages.

Malta is proud to have been a constant, enduring part of the story of P&O. Post-war liners that linger in living memory are Chusan, Himalaya, Iberia, Arcadia and Canberra. To these are added the Orient liners, including Orcades, Oronsay, Orsova and Oriana.

January 24, 1912: Medina arrives in Malta with King George V and Queen Mary.

In 1995 P&O took delivery of another Oriana, its first new passenger liner since Canberra and Oriana. A sister, Aurora, followed in 2000. The 2017 fleet comprises Oriana, Aurora, Arcadia, Oceana, Ventura, Azura and Britannia, which has the distinction of being the largest cruise ship ever built for the British market.

A postcard displaying the public rooms aboard the Maloja.

Malta and the Grand Harbour are honoured to be the first port to host Aurora in its circumnavigation of the globe. Apart from Aurora, P&O Oceana will be home porting out of Grand Harbour throughout 2017. This will be a P&O first for Malta. Both events will crown the 180-year old connection between the company and Malta.

Until World War II the Malta office was at 41, Merchants Street, Valletta. This was close to the post and telegraph offices and several hotels. After the war Thos C. Smith took over the agency. In 2015, Mifsud Brothers Ltd, agents of Cunard Line since the 1940s, were appointed agents for P&O Cruises as a result of consolidation within Carnival (UK) Group.

The splendid vistas of Malta’s magnificent harbours anchor continuity in an ever changing world. Ballou’s parting description of 1893 could well have been written while you are reading this:

“Our last view of the romantic group was under a sky of blue and tranquil loveliness, bathed in a silvery sheen of moonlight, as seen across the azure and limpid waters from the deck of a P&O steamship, bound westward to England. We left the harbour of Valletta at sunset. While the light was fading away, that of the moon and stars was hastening into life. The lofty ramparts overlooking the sea cast purple shadows upon the silent surface of the water. The terraced town stood out in strong relief, here a dome and there a tower overlooking all the stone warehouses, while the slender tracery of the shipping appeared like spider’s webs. The town stood there firm and stately, as though cut out of solid rock.”

Afterword

In the 1980s I was happy to assist in a small way in the production of P&O A Fleet History by Stephen Rabson and Kevin O’ Donoghue, published by the World Ship Society in 1988. It did not cross my mind then that less than three decades later I would write about the P&O-Malta connection on the occasion of the company’s 180th anniversary.

Several books have been written on P&O, including Cable Boyd – A Hundred Year History of the P&O, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company 1837-1937 (1937), Neil McCart – 20th Century Passenger Ships of the P&O (1985), David Howarth and Stephen Howarth – The Story of P&O, The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (1986).

I would like to thank Ivan Mifsud, Martin Morana, Robert Cassar and John Xiberras for their kind assistance.

mikscas@gmail.com

(Concluded)