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World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

water transport

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company

Dissolved 2006

Headquarters: London
Founded: 1837
Employees: —

Official website

Photo: Arnold Wright · Public domain · file

Ships in this registry

Counted from individual vessel records · Wikidata

Reported fleet size

—

No published figure available

Container capacity

—

Not a ranked container line

Gross tonnage on record

88,524

Summed over 4 ships reporting tonnage

In brief

What Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company is

Full article ↗

P&O (in full, The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) was a British shipping and logistics company dating from the early 19th century. Formerly a public company, it was sold to DP World in March 2006 for £3.9 billion. DP World currently operates several P&O branded businesses, P&O Ferries, Istithmar P&O Estates, and P&O Maritime Logistics. It also operates P&O Heritage, which is the official historic archive and collection of P&O.

Origin

Who founded it

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1837 by one named founder on record. Portraits are shown only where a freely licensed photograph exists and its photographer is known.

Founder

Arthur Anderson

1792–1868

businessman (1792-1868)

Photo: op unknown · Public domain · file

Corporate profile

Identity and registration

Legal name: —
Industry: water transport
Legal form: subsidiary company
Country of registration: United Kingdom
Headquarters: London
Formed in: —
Founded: 1837
Dissolved: 2006
Employees: —
Head office coordinates: 51.5072, -0.1275

Ships on record here: 10
Vessel types operated: 4
Flag states used: 2
Average vessel age: 78.8 years
Oldest vessel on record: 1920
Newest vessel on record: 1990
Largest vessel by tonnage: 41,910
Average tonnage: 22,131
Market share: —
Parent company: DP World
Alliance: —
Record source: wikidata
Last refreshed: 2026-09-05

Corporate structure

Ownership and holdings

Parent company

DP World

Owned by

DP World

Services and products

ocean liner

Subsidiaries and units (1)

P&O Ferries11 ships

Fleet on record

What this company sails

Composition of the 10 vessels this registry attributes to Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Bars are true proportions of that set, not of the company's full fleet.

By vessel type

By flag state

By shipbuilder

Vickers-Armstrongs3

Vickers2

Forgacs Shipyard Tomago1

Armstrong Whitworth1

John Brown & Company1

Harland and Wolff1

Caird & Company1

Delivery history

10-year fleet record

Ships delivered in each of the last 10 years, counted from the recorded build year of vessels attributed to this company, with the running total of its fleet on record. No deliveries fall inside this window — this company’s vessels on record were all built earlier.

Year	Gross tonnage added	Fleet on record
2017	—	10
2018	—	10
2019	—	10
2020	—	10
2021	—	10
2022	—	10
2023	—	10
2024	—	10
2025	—	10
2026	—	10

Vessel records

Ships on record

10 vessels

Ship	IMO	Type	Flag	Built	Gross tonnage	Deadweight	Length	Builder
SS Oriana	5264742	Cruise ship	United Kingdom	1960	41,910	—	245.1 m	Vickers-Armstrongs
SS Chusan	5072539	Cruise ship	United Kingdom	1950	24,215	—	205.0 m	Vickers-Armstrongs
Naldera	1142257	Passenger vessel	United Kingdom	1920	15,825	8,680	176.8 m	Caird & Company
Aurora Australis	8717283	Research / survey	Australia	1990	6,574	3,911	94.9 m	Forgacs Shipyard Tomago
RMS Strathmore	5342295	Passenger vessel	United Kingdom	1935	—	—	195.2 m	Vickers-Armstrongs
SS Arcadia	5022065	Cruise ship	United Kingdom	1954	—	—	219.9 m	John Brown & Company
SS Himalaya	5150800	Unclassified	United Kingdom	1949	—	9,659	216.0 m	Vickers
SS Iberia	5157781	Cruise ship	United Kingdom	1954	—	—	219.0 m	Harland and Wolff
SS Mongolia	5001580	Cruise ship	United Kingdom	1923	—	—	175.0 m	Armstrong Whitworth
S S Stratheden	5342269	Unclassified	United Kingdom	1937	—	11,000	202.5 m	Vickers

Ships in registry counts individual vessel records attributed to the company here. Reported fleet is the company’s published total. They measure different things and are shown separately on purpose.

In context

How Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company compares

Counts over companies and vessels actually held in this directory — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.

With 10 vessels attributed to it here, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company is the 89th largest of the 965 operators in this directory that hold at least one ship on record, against a median of 2 across that group. That is a count of individually identified hulls, not the company’s published fleet size — the two are different measurements and both are shown above where available.

United Kingdom is the country of registration for 97 commercial operators in this directory, among which Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company ranks 6th by ships on record. Between them those companies hold 260 vessels here. See every operator registered in United Kingdom.

Founded in 1837, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company is 189 years old. This directory holds 14 operators founded within five years either side of that date, whose median fleet on record is 2 ships. The median founding year across all commercial operators here is 1966, and the oldest on record dates to 1514.

Provenance

Where this page comes from

Company and vessel recordsWikidata item Q1491836, released under CC0. Counted figures on this page are counts over those records.

Written summaryQuoted from P&O on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Published fleet figuresNo published fleet figure is available for this company.