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| Formerly | Canadian Pacific Steamship Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Shipping |
| Founded | 1887 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Founder | William Cornelius Van Horne |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Fate | Merged with TUI AG |
| Headquarters | City Place Gatwick, London , UK |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Ronald Niel Stuart, Samuel Robinson, John Wallace Thomas |
Footnotes / references | |
CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships from Europe to Canada. In 1914 the sinking of the Canadian Pacific steamship RMS Empress of Ireland just before World War I became largest maritime disaster in Canadian history. The company provided Canadian Merchant Navy vessels in World Wars I and II. Twelve vessels were lost due to enemy action in World War II, including the RMS Empress of Britain, which was the largest ship ever sunk by a German U-boat.
The company moved to a model of container shipping from passenger, freight and mail service in the 1960s due to competitive pressure from the airline industry. The company was a part of the Canadian Pacific Ltd. conglomerate. It was spun out as a separate company in 2001. In 2005, it was purchased by TUI AG and is now part of the company's Hapag-Lloyd division.
The Atlantic and Pacific passenger liners of Canadian Pacific were always British-flagged and largely British-manned and were not part of the Canadian Merchant Marine, ownership being with the British-registered Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. subsidiary.
