When the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company - affectionately known as P & O - was founded 1834, the two original partners (Brodie Willcox and Arthur Anderson) took a decision to hire ships rather than go to the expense of buiding their own. The first ship to be chartered for their new service to the Peninsular (Spain and Portugal) was the William Fawcett even though, in the event, she was to prove unsuitable for the notorious Bay of Biscay crossings. The William Fawcett was a wooden paddle steamer of 206 tons built by Caleb Smith in Liverpool and engined there by Fawcett & Preston. Named after the man who had constructed her engines, she was launched in 1828 as a Mersey ferry but soon purchased by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company who, in turn, leased her to P & O. She only ran on P & O's primary route for a few years and, by 1838, had been relegated to their subsidary service from Lisbon to Maderia. In the years ahead however, as the company established itself as the world's largest shipping group, the tiny William Fawcett was able to claim the honour of being the very first vessel in the long line of splended P & O ships.