History
 



 RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       RMS ORION
 

The RMS Orion was the first British ocean liner with air conditioning in all her public rooms. With her magnificent art deco interiors she set a new standard in ocean travel for the time and introduced the famous Orient Line corn coloured livery. She was a contemporary of P&O's Strathmore. She was a true pioneer and set the standard for all Orient Line and P&O Line ships that followed her. The Orion and the Strathmore represented the start of a coming together of Orient Line and P&O as their ships became ever more similar in design.


Design and Construction (1934-1935): 

The RMS Orion was an enlarged version of Orontes, and the first single funnelled ship to be built for Orient Line since 1902. She also had only one mast, making her very different from her predecessors in the fleet. She was the first British ship to be fitted with air-conditioning, though this was confined to the dining rooms in her original configuration. She was a twin screw vessel, powered by geared turbines and had a service speed of 20 knots. Her accommodation was originally designed for 486 in first class and 653 in tourist class, with a crew of 466. On cruises she accommodated 600 passengers in a one class environment. At the time she was the largest ship in the Orient Line fleet. She was the first Orient Line ship designed by the young New Zealander, Brian O’Rorke, who later went on to design all future Orient Line ships right up until the Oriana in 1960.

She was built by Vickers-Armstrong in Barrow in Furness, England, UK and was launched on December 7, 1934 and completed in August 1935. However her launching stands apart in British maritime history, for it was an event, which no British ship had ever experienced.  RMS Orion was launched by remote control via wireless all the way from Brisbane, Australia. HRH The Duke of Gloucester, officiated and pressed a button that transmitted a radio signal to Barrow in Furness where the launching took place. The idea was actually copied from the launching of a Holland-Africa liner when radio waves were used for the first time. Due to this launch, she immediately has a special affiliation with Australia.

The Prewar Orient Line Era (1935 – 1939): 

When delivered to Orient Lines in August 1935, she undertook several short cruises from London, including one to Norway. Then on the 28th September 1935 she departed Tilbury on her maiden voyage to Australia. Until the war broke out in 1939, Orion operated main line voyages to Australia with occasional cruises from the UK. 

The War Years (1939 – 1946): 

At the outbreak of the Second World War she was requisitioned by the British government as a troop ship. Her first voyage for the troops was to Egypt and then it was off to Wellington, New Zealand to board troops to take to Europe. She left Wellington on January 6, 1940 and joined with other ships in convoy for Sydney Australia, to rendezvous with her sister ship Orcades. The convoy then left Australia to disembark their troops in Egypt.

Her career during the war was not without incident or accident. On 15 September 1941, in a convoy carrying troops to Singapore, she was following the battleship HMS Revenge in the South Atlantic when the steering gear on the warship malfunctioned. Orion rammed Revenge and the impact caused severe damage to Orion’s bow. She continued to Cape Town where temporary repairs were made and then continued to Singapore where more permanent repairs were completed. 

It was about this time the Japanese were closing in on Singapore and thus Orion was again enlisted, but this time it was to evacuate civilians to the safety of Australia. She remained an essential troop carrier during the war years doing all that was required of her. In October 1942 she was one of many requisitioned liners which participated in “Operation Torch” and made two trips to North Africa carrying over 5,000 troops each time. In 1943 her troop carrying capacity was increased to 7,000 which, along with other vessels such as USS West Point (SS America) played a huge role in the positioning of the Western Allied Forces. Her role as a troop carrier tapered off in the Pacific there after, but she continued moving troops some 5,000 per voyage. When she was finally released from active duties, Orion had carried over 175,000 soldiers and civilians and according to her log, she steamed over 380,000 miles. 

The Postwar Orient Line Era (1946 – 1963):

After being released from war duties, the war weary Orion was returned to the shipyard at Barrow in Furness on the 1st May 1946, where she received a complete refit, which took almost a year, but this included a redesign of all passenger accommodation. At completion she could now carry 546 First Class and 706 in Tourist. 

She departed from Tilbury on her postwar maiden voyage on the 25th December 1947 bound for Australia. In her postwar years beside her main line voyages she also made three cruises to the West coast of America. In 1958 she received another change to accommodations and now accommodated 342 Cabin Class and 722 Tourist Class Six years later she became an all one class ship and accommodating 1,691 passengers. Around the same time passenger numbers were rapidly declining on line voyages and P&O decided to retire her in 1963.   

For her final voyage to Australia, she departed Tilbury Docks in London on the 28th February 1963, sailing via the Suez for Sydney. With great fanfare, she departed Sydney on the 8th April 1963 and set sail for Fremantle via Melbourne. Flying an 85 foot paying-off pennant from her mast she departed Fremantle and Australia on the 15th April. Orion arrived at Tilbury Docks in London for the last time on the 15th May 1963 facing an uncertain future. 

Her Final Months (1963):

She was chartered for four months as a floating hotel at the “International Horticultural Exhibition in Hamburg, where she arrived on the 23rd May 1963. She offered accommodation for 1150 guests. At the conclusion of the exhibition on the 30th September 1963, she darted the next day across to Antwerp where she was broken up by the Jos Boel et Fils scrap yard.

 



 

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