CP Ships - a traditional Canadian liner shipping company

“The railway has united the nation,” a historian once wrote about the completion of Canadian Pacific Railway’s track which created the first transcontinental link between  Canada’s east and west coasts. This historic development began with the incorporation of Canadian Pacific Railway on 16th February 1881. And it led to the founding of CP Ships.

With the dual objective of establishing a link between Canada’s far-flung settlements and promoting trade, the newly-incorporated railway company entered the shipping business in 1884 deploying three vessels on the Great Lakes. In the beginning, much of the cargo they carried was for construction of the railway.

In 1886, Canadian Pacific Railway’s first train crossed the continent. And just three weeks later, the 800-ton sailing ship “WB Flint”, the first ocean-going vessel chartered by the railway, unloaded more than one million pounds of Asian tea in Vancouver for delivery by the rail to Hamilton, Toronto and New York.

This was the beginning of CP Ships.

In 1891, CP Ships put its first owned vessels into the Trans-Pacific service and started serving the Trans-Atlantic market in 1903 to participate in the growing immigrant market and in doing so, help populate the young confederation. From 1922, when Canadian Pacific entered the cruise market, the Empress liners were considered the most luxurious of their time.

CP Ships adapted to containerisation early on, in 1964, when its first containerships carried approximately 12 containers each. At the beginning of the seventies all passenger services were discontinued, with the company focusing entirely on its freight business.

Modern-day CP Ships began in 1984 when Canadian Pacific co-founded Canada Maritime. From that point, CP Ships grew mainly by acquisition from a North Atlantic niche operator to become one of the top 15 international container carriers.  

Between 1993 and 2002, CP Ships acquired full ownership of Canada Maritime (1993), Cast (1995), Lykes Lines (1997), Contship Containerlines (1997), Ivaran Lines (1998), ANZDL (1998), TMM Lines (2000), FMG (2000), CCAL (2000) and Italia Line (2002). With the exception of the Ivaran, CCAL and FMG brands which were retired shortly after being acquired, services were offered separately under each of these brands until 2005 when all services were re-branded under the CP Ships name.

CP Ships also included Montreal Gateway Terminals, which continues to operate one of the largest container terminals in Canada, now as part of Hapag-Lloyd.