by John Martin

The history of Canadian Pacific’s foray into the business of forest product maritime transport in the 1960s is inextricably bound up with the formation of Canadian Pacific (Bermuda) Ltd. This company had been founded in 1964, specifically as a means to provide entry into a wider world of competitive ship-owning, a world not governed by conference rules or threatened by the looming demise of the trans- Atlantic passenger ship trade. Post-war Canadian Pacific shipping interests outside of actual Canadian waters had recently become concentrated on a mixed bag of cargo vessels serving mainly European and Eastern Canadian routes, and their two remaining and graceful passenger liners, known as the ‘White Empresses’. A radical shift in emphasis was needed, and the Bermudan registered fleet was to be the solution.