Small investors give Princess a stormy send off into the sunset

The door was closed on P&O Princess Cruises' brief life as an independent company yesterday after its shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of a £3.5bn tie-up with Carnival Corporation of the US.

It was left to the UK group's retail investors to mount lone voices of protest at an extraordinary meeting to approve the deal, which will create the world's biggest cruise ship operator.

Shares in the new group, which will be listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, will start trading on Tuesday. The UK holding company will be rechristened Carnival plc from today.

About 100 shareholders turned up for the EGM, which marked Lord Sterling of Plaistow's swansong as chairman. Setting the jingoistic tone for a gathering that turned out to be a pale shadow of a previous attempt to cement a rival deal last year, private investors lambasted the British group for ceding control to its US counterpart. As with last year's EGM, which marked the turning point in a three-way battle between Carnival and Royal Caribbean for control of P&O Princess, anti-Americanism was rife.

"This is a bad day for Britain, a bad day for shareholders and a particularly bad day for cruisers," one private shareholder sighed. Another, Captain David Hawker, who was commended by Lord Sterling for his AGM dedication, said: "We are very sad to see this great company's management being handed over to a foreigner."

Malcolm Rex, also a retail investor, went further, saying: "You keep talking about this fine company and yet you're selling it to the Yanks. What next? Are you going to stick ears on it and turn it into a Disney ship? Colonisation is coming back to haunt us."

Keeping the mood light, Lord Sterling said it was "a great compliment" to Britain that it had reached the stage where it was "prepared to hand management over to someone from a former colony".

Although around half of the shareholders present voted against the deal, just over 408 million votes were cast in support against about 1 million against. The vote marked the end of a takeover saga that has dragged on for nearly 18 months and dominated the two and a half years since P&O Princess was spun off from its parent.

Carnival said Lord Sterling would become life president of P&O Cruises. He is also to advise Micky Arison, Carnival's chairman and chief executive.