In 1837, P&O, or the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, won a lucrative mail contract to the Iberian peninsula. In 1840, they added Egypt and the Mediterranean to their routes. In 1843, P&O placed the first cruise advert in The Times, and in 1844 were selling passages to Gibraltar, Malta, Athens, Constantinople and Egypt to tourists, clearly becoming the world's oldest cruise company. In that year, the author William Thackeray was offered...