Get Cruising!

Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd (Est. 1884)



The Early Years

In 1884 the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. entered into ship owning and three steamers were built to operate Great Lakesservices. These ships sailed across the Atlantic, were cut in half at Montreal, towed to Buffalo and rejoined. In 1886 regular passenger services were started between Montreal and Port Moody and in 1887 a service between Vancouver and the Orient commenced with chartered vessels, to be followed in 1891 by the company's own "Empress" ships. The Columbia and Kootenay River Navigation Co was purchased in 1890 and this enabled CPR to enter the sternwheeler traffic of the Canadian Rockies lakes and river trade. The same year, passenger routes were established between Toronto, Montreal and Chicago. AVancouver - Victoria service started in 1897 and in 1901 the ships and coastal services of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Co were acquired. Transatlantic passenger services commenced in 1903 when the fleet and North Atlantic interests of Elder Dempster & Co and their subsidiary Beaver Line were taken over and the following year, a regular service between Seattle and Victoria BC was inaugurated. The Bay of Funday route started in 1912 and in 1913 CPR and Allan Line started joint co-operation in victualling and stores depots and the two fleets eventually merged, but this was not formally announced until Jan. 1916. Most of CPR's fleet was requisitioned for war service in 1914 and in 1915 Canadian Pacific Ocean Services was formed to operate the combined CPR / Allan Line fleets.

Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd

In 1921 the title of the operating company became Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. On the outbreak of war in 1939, Canadian Pacific placed all their ships at the disposal of the government and several were taken over as troopships. In the 1960s with the advent of air travel and cargo containerisation, the passenger ships were gradually sold and new container and bulk cargo vessels built.


CP Ships

In 1968 Canadian Pacific Line was renamed CP Ships and the use of its famous red and white checkered flag dating from 1891 was discontinued. In 1970 CP Ships retired from the passenger liner business with the retirement of the last of its famous “Empress” ocean liners. Since then CP Ships has primarily been a container shipping line.

In 1984 Canadian Pacific co-founded Canada Maritime with CMB. This brand became a wholly owned subsidiary of CP Ships in 1993. Canada Maritime is the largest carrier providing intermodal container shipping services between North America and North/Mediterranean Europe via the Montreal gateway. The Northern Service operates over three weekly routes, the Mediterranean Service over two. In both services Canada Maritime deploys ice-strengthened container ships designed to ensure year round schedule integrity.

Its weekly Pacific Gateway Service, introduced in 2003 and expanded in 2004, connects Anchorage and Vancouver, withChina, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Canada Maritime's ocean services are supported by a network of rail, truck and barge links to the North American, European and Asian industrial heartlands.

 
Empress of Britain c.1956 25,516 GRT Scrapped 2008
Canada Maritime is one of few container carriers to be awarded Q1 Quality status by Ford Motor Company. Over the years, it has also been cited numerous times for quality service by the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association. And it has earned awards from Logistics Management & Distribution Report and Canadian Transportation & Logistics magazines.

Another of the CP Ships brands is CAST, founded in Canada in 1969 and acquired by CP Ships in 1995. It was one of the first shipping lines to market vertically integrated door-to-door services on a single bill of lading. It was also one of the container shipping industry's branding pioneers. Cast offers service on five separate weekly routes between North America and North Europe and the Mediterranean via the Montreal Gateway. It has won many awards for schedule reliability, fast transit times and customer service, including from Logistics Management and Distribution Report and Lloyds Loading List.

In 1997 Lykes Lines was acquired by CP Ships. Lykes Lines is one of the US liner industry's longest enduring brands. It began as Lykes Bros. Steamship Company in 1899, with a wooden schooner transporting cattle from the US Gulf to Cuba. In the 1920s, it expanded, opening offices in Europe, and by the 1930s trade routes extended to the Mediterranean and Asia. In 1979, the Letitia Lykes was the first US-flag ship to call at a port in China since the revolution there.

Today it offers services in the US, Canada, North Europe, Mediterranean, Asia, India, Oceania, Africa, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Its services include those previously operated under the Ivaran and CCAL brands, which were acquired by CP Ships in 1998 and 2000 respectively.

Another addition to CP Ships was Contship Containerlines in 1997. Founded as a regional market specialist in 1968, Contship Containerlines was one of Europe's first ocean carriers dedicated exclusively to container service. This acquisition established the group's first platform for expansion beyond the Trans-Atlantic. Being a part of CP Ships allowed it to develop its regional focus resulting in considerable service product and trade lane improvements. Today Contship Containerlines serves many of the world key regional trades.

Australia New Zealand Direct Line (ANZDL) was founded in 1987 and acquired by CP Ships in December 1998. Since then, ANZDL has replaced its entire fleet of container ships and restructured and improved its services. It offers services betweenAustralia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, North America, Mexico and South America. ANZDL is an acknowledged frontrunner in the container shipping industry, in terms of both customer service and the development of web-based e-commerce applications.

One of the more recent additions is TMM Lines which joined CP Ships in 1999. As a carrier with expertise in both North and South America, TMM Lines is in a unique position as an Americas specialist. It has its origins in Linea Mexicana, the shipping line acquired by Grupo TMM in 1960. Its first services operated between the US and Mexico. In the 1960s, it expanded into the Central and South America trades and launched its first regular TransAtlantic service into Northern Europe. In 1968 it began operating scheduled services between Mexico and Asia and between Mexico and the Mediterranean.

In early 1999, CP Ships and Grupo TMM formed the joint venture Americana Ships. It included TMM's liner division and CP Ships' Lykes Lines. TMM Lines was launched in November 1999 and all the previous TMM liner brands (operating under the names TMM, Linea Mexicana, Tecomar and TMG) were absorbed into it. In 2000, CP Ships acquired Grupo TMM's share of Americana Ships and so gained full control of TMM Lines.

TMM Lines is now more internationally focused, with expanded TransAtlantic, TransPacific and north-south services, including Africa, on both the east and west coasts of the Americas.

CP Ships latest acquisition is the renowned Italian shipping line, Italia Line acquired in 2002. Italia Line, CP Ships' Mediterranean-Americas specialist, offers fast and frequent connections between the Mediterranean and major markets in the US Gulf, the West Coast of North America, as well as South and Central America. It was acquired by CP Ships in August 2002.

Italia Line's origins date back to the first half of the 19th century with the founding of two steamship companies that merged in 1881. Throughout the early 20th century Italia became well known for its extensive passenger services between Italy and the United States and Brazil including in its fleet over the years many famous ocean liners such as the REX, AUGUSTUS, LEONARDO DA VINCI, CHRISTOFORO COLUMBO, and ANDREA DORIA. But after the decline in demand for passenger travel in the 1970s, it focused mainly on cargo transport.

It is the market leader on services from the Mediterranean to West Coast North America and has developed a particular expertise in handling temperature-controlled cargo, offering full refrigerated facilities on all services.

<>Today CP Ships is one of the world’s leading container shipping companies, CP Ships combines the customer focus and market presence of a regional specialist with the scale economies of a global carrier to provide cost efficient and competitive ocean and intermodal transportation service. More than 80% of its activity is North American exports or imports. CP Ships' principal markets are: TransAtlantic, Australasia, Latin America and Asia. Within these markets CP Ships operates 34 services in 21 trade lanes, most of which are served by two or more of its seven readily recognized brand names: ANZDL, Canada Maritime, Cast, Contship Containerlines, Italia Line, Lykes Lines and TMM Lines. Within the majority of its core trade lanes, CP Ships is the leading carrier. CP Ships since 2001 has been trading as a separate company having been one of the five subsidiaries that were spun out of the parent company Canadian Pacific Ltd to form separate companies. In 2003 CP Ships reintroduced the famous checkered flag as its corporate symbol.

The Final Years

On the 21st August 2005, the German congolomerate TUI AG offered to acquire CP Ships Limited for €1.7 billion (US$2.0 billion) in cash, and merge it with TUI's Hapag-Lloyd division.

On the 30th August 2005, Ship Acquisition Incorporated, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of TUI AG made a formal offer for 100% of CP Ships shares. The deal was approved by the boards of both CP Ships and TUI AG and was presented to CP Ships shareholders for approval.

On the 19th October 2005 CP Ships and TUI AG jointly announced that 89.1% of CP Ships shareholders, representing 84,095,325 common shares, had accepted Ship Acquisition Inc.'s August 30 offer. The shares were to be taken up the following day the 20th October 2005, followed by payment of $21.50 USD per share on the 25th October 2005. Following the purchase and merger, TUI AG's combined Hapag-Lloyd and CP Ships fleet will comprise the fifth largest by capacity in the worldwide container shipping market.

From May 2006 the integration of CP Ships services into HAPAG-LLOYD began in two phases. The first phase involved the transfer of North Atlantic Services to Hapag Lloyd and this concluded in mid July 2006 ending over a century of Canadian Pacific on the North Atlantic. The second phase starting in mid July 2006 involved the transfer of all other services and was completed by the end of August 2006. So by the 31st August 2006 this integration was complete and the CP Ships brand and website were discontinued. Thus CP Ships and the legacy of Canadian Pacific’s shipping operations was no more and thus passed into history.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for this great post, i find it very interesting and very well thought out and put together. I look forward to reading your work in the future. package forwarding

    ReplyDelete
  2. US to India shipping is helpful in sending packages to your loved ones without any hassle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shipping from US to India has been easier with the help of PPOBOX as they help you to track your package as well as provide you a cost estimator which helps you to find out the courier charges for your package before even shipping the package.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A great blog post!!! Thanks for sharing with us. It's very interesting and helpful for us...refrigerated transport services

    ReplyDelete