Passengers of Note 

In 1910, P&O was feeling the pinch.  Travellers were being hit by the increased cost of living in India and the East.  For the Company that meant that "it compels our clientele to adopt the strictest economy in travelling".

The P&O Chairman, Sir Thomas Sutherland, further lamented, "We have no American millionaires, like my friends of the Cunard Company, travelling in our ships or if they ever travel in our vessels they travel incognito and save their money".

Millionaires may have been scarce but there was no shortage of the great and the good travelling P&O.  Regular references to the company's steamers appeared in the Court Circulars of the day and the Company continued its age-old tradition of carrying royalty.

In December 1910, the P&O steamer Delhi played host to the party of the Princess Royal, and eldest daughter of the late King, Edward VII, the Duke of Fife and their two daughters who travelled to Egypt "for the benefit of the Princess Royal's health".

Precisely a year later the family would repeat the same journey on the same ship but in altogether different and tragic circumstances.  On the night of 13th December 1911, the Delhi ran aground two miles south of Cape Spartel, Morocco at the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar.  The Royal party, and their fellow passengers, were rescued with help from the Royal and French Navies, but not before their launch sank in the heavy seas.  It was widely suggested that the Duke of Fife's death from pleurisy just weeks after their ordeal was directly attributable to the Delhi disaster.