This brochure describes around-the-world tours people could take using Canadian Pacific trains across Canada, Canadian Pacific ships from Vancouver to Hong Kong or Australia, and Canadian Pacific ships from Liverpool to Montreal. The brochure lists other carriers that could complete the tour between Australia and England.

Click image to view and download a 13.1-MB PDF of this brochure from the David Rumsey map collection.

In addition to the empresses of Japan, China, and India from Vancouver to Yokohama and Hong Kong, the brochure notes that Canadian Pacific had two other ships on that route: the Athenian and Tartar. These were smaller and a few years older than the empresses. The Athenian was scrapped in 1907 and the Tartar in 1908.

The brochure also describes the Canadian-Australian Steamship Line, which was half-owned by Canadian Pacific and half by a New Zealand steamship company. This line operated three ships, the Aorangi, Moana, and Miowera, — all of which were much smaller than the empresses — between Vancouver and Australia via Honolulu. The trips from Vancouver to Hong Kong took about three weeks, while Vancouver to Sydney took nearly four. The brochure also has brief descriptions of ship lines that went from Sydney to England.

When this brochure was issued, Canadian Pacific had just taken over the Beaver Line, which operated four trans-Atlantic steamships, all named after North American lakes: Champlain, Erie, Manitoba, and Michigan. These ships could carry about 550 passengers. This brochure lists schedules only for the first three of these ships, but according to this website, the Michigan started operating between Liverpool and Montreal for Canadian Pacific on May 26, 1903.

The brochure claimed that people could take most of the around-the-world tours it described for as little as £130 or “$632.70 gold.” In today’s U.S. dollars, that’s around $19,000 to $20,000. Of course, better accommodations and side tours could greatly increase that cost.

The one advantage of these tours over the cruises later offered by Canadian Pacific was that people could make unlimited stopovers without worrying about missing their ship. However, with ships scheduled only once three to four weeks on CP’s Pacific routes, people wouldn’t want to make too many stopovers. Later cruises made multiple-day stopovers in some major ports, which was enough for most tourists.