For more than 150 years P&O has been one of the world's greatest shipping lines. Beginning with the mail contract to Gibraltar, P&O quickly became the British way to travel the world. The first shipping company to offer cruises, more than 100 years later cruising on P&O's famous white ships remains an important part of the company's activities, although it is now an internationally based group with many wide-ranging interests. This is the history of the company and its operations.