Cruising in 1910

A century ago, S.S. Mantua was the latest P&O ship to offer a summer schedule of pleasure cruises before resuming to her more regular route to India and Australia.

P&O had begun cruising six years earlier, in 1904, as a response to falling passenger numbers in the traditional low season for line voyages.  The Company invested heavily in the new venture but in 1910 the income from the touring business was still showing a poor return.

Cruising called for a different approach to berthing ratios and the Company made a conscious effort to limit the number of passengers to avoid overcrowding.

The solo traveller could enjoy the single delight of a spacious two berth cabin and "five thousand miles of travel by sea under the happiest conditions" for just a guinea a day.  Few could resist the lure of the Company's advertising brochures and the pull of exotic ports:  "Lisbon and the Islands! The Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, with Gibraltar and Tangier thrown in! ... It is not easy to imagine how twenty-four sparkling spring days could be more pleasantly spent than in this invigorating cruise over the blue waters of the Atlantic"