In 1837 P&O or the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company won a lucrative mail contract to the Iberian peninsula. In 1840 they added Egypt & the Mediterranean to their routes. In 1843 P&O placed the first cruise advert in The Times & in 1844 were selling passages to Gibraltar Malta Athens Constantinople & Egypt to tourists clearly becoming the worlds oldest cruise company. In that year the author William Thackeray was offered a voyage if he would write about it for the company helping promote their services. By 1870 the Suez Canal had opened reducing the time to travel to India China & Australia & in 1904 P&O introduced the Vectis as a cruising yacht. By the 1920s cruising had become a huge part of the companys business & post-war the company grew this business on the back of its lucrative Ten-Pound Pom contracts with the Australian government. By 1981 Canberra was carrying almost half of all cruise passengers from the UK & in 1982 she sailed to war with Royal Marines & the Parachute Regiment. Post-Falklands P&O began to expand with new vessels. Today the company has seven cruise ships (Adonia Arcadia Aurora Azura Oceana Oriana & Ventura) all of which will be in Southampton on 3 July 2012 when 30 000 passengers will embark & disembark a record for the port. Celebrating 175 years in style this is the official history of P&O Cruises.