All the romance of travel at sea is captured in the long history of P&O. From humble beginnings in the 1830s, The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company grew to dominate British mercantile shipping for much of the 19th, and a good deal of the 20th, centuries. Initially the company's paddle steamers carried Her Majesty's Mail, as the name implies, to the Iberian Peninsular, but over time P&O extended its routes across the Mediterranean, and onwards to the Middle East, Far East and Australasia. Besides the mail P&O liners carried specie, as well as such commodities as silk, tea, and...