RMS Orion was an ocean liner launched by the Orient Steam Navigation Company

Orient Steam Navigation Company

The Orient Steam Navigation Company, also known as the Orient Line, was a British shipping company with roots going back to the late 18th century...

 in 1934 and retired from the water in 1963 after carrying about 500,000 passengers. A 23,371 ton passenger ship, the Orion was built to carry 486 first class, 653 tourist class and 466 crew passengers from Europe through the Pacific to Australia.

The vessel's sister ship was Orcades, launched in 1937.

Design and construction

Orion was an enlarged version of SS Orontes

SS Orontes

The SS Orontes was a passenger ship owned by Orient Line.The ship was built in 1929 by Vickers Armstrong LTD. at Barrow-in-Furness, England.Its sister ships were Orama , Orford, Oronsay, and Otranto .- Service :...

, and the first single funnel ship to be built for the Orient Line since 1902. She also had a single mast, giving her a very different appearance to her predecessors. She was the first ship to be painted in the Orient Line's livery with a corn coloured hull.

Her accommodation was originally designed for 486 First Class and 653 Tourist Class passengers, with a crew of 466. When sailing on cruise voyages she accommodated 600 passengers in a single class.

Orion was called "A landmark in the evolution of the modern liner" by the Architectural Review

Architectural Review

The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....

. Previous liners had adopted the cloistered and formally decorated styles of interior designing found in the wealthy homes of England, however, Brian OʼRorke, the New Zealand born designer in charge of Orions interior, recognized the need to adapt to the tropical and ocean going conditions of life aboard ship. The result was an open air layout that made use of removable and folding walls, sliding glass doors, and relatively enormous promenade decks to keep cooling breezes flowing through spaces passengers could relax in. Rooms without access to the deck of the boat were also made to feel breezy by being as light and uncluttered as possible. Furnishings were chosen for their clean lines, wood given matte finishes, and columns left unadorned. Going past just being unadorned, the chromium

Chromium

Chromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odorless, tasteless, and malleable...

 and bakelite materials used extensively throughout the ship meant surfaces were more resistant to the effects of sea air, a first in liners. This was a new type of functional interior that could be linked to the functionality of a shipʼs exterior. Orion was also the first British ship to be fitted with air conditioning, though this was originally confined to the dining rooms.

Career

Launched by the Duke of Gloucester

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester

The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester was a soldier and member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary....

 from Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, Australia by wireless remote, Orion slid into the Lancashire waters at Vickers Armstrong

Vickers Armstrong

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927...

's yard in Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

 on 7 December 1934.

She was delivered to her owners in August 1935 and made a series of cruises from Tilbury Docks

Port of Tilbury

The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London; as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for containers, grain, and other bulk cargoes. There are also...

, London, the first of which was to Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. On 29 September 1935 she sailed from Tilbury on her maiden voyage to Australia. Orion alternated between voyages to Australia with short cruises until the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when she was requisitioned by the British government as a troopship.

Wartime service

Orions first voyage as a troopship was to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, then to Wellington, New Zealand to transport troops to Europe. She departed Wellington on 6 January 1940 and sailed in convoy for Sydney, Australia, to rendezvous with her sister ship Orcades, the convoy then sailing from Australia to Egypt.

On 15 September 1941, while part of a convoy carrying troops to Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, she was following the battleship HMS Revenge in the South Atlantic when the warship's steering gear malfunctioned and Orion rammed Revenge, the impact causing severe damage to Orions bow. She continued to Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 where temporary repairs were made and then continued to Singapore where more permanent repairs were performed. The Japanese army was at this time advancing on Singapore, so Orion was called upon to evacuate civilians to Australia.

In October 1942 Orion was one of many former passenger liners which took part in Operation Torch

Operation Torch

Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....

, and made two voyages to North Africa carrying over 5,000 troops each time. In 1943 her troop carrying capacity was increased to 7,000 which with other vessels such as the USS West Point

SS America (1940)

SS America was an ocean liner built in 1940 for the United States Lines and designed by the noted naval architect William Francis Gibbs. She carried many names in the 54 years between her construction and her 1994 wrecking, as she served as the SS America , the USS West Point, the SS Australis, the...

 (former SS America) played a major part in the transportation of Allied forces.

Her role as a troopship tapered off in the Pacific theatre but she still ferried troops around at 5,000 a time. By the time she was released from service in 1946, Orion had carried over 175,000 personnel and had steamed over 380000 mi (611,549.2 km).

Postwar

Orion returned to Vickers Armstrong's yard in Barrow on 1 May 1946 to be refitted as a passenger liner. The refit took a year, and included a redesign to accommodate 546 First Class and 706 Tourist Class passengers.

She was the first Orient Line to make a postwar voyage to Australia, sailing from Tilbury on 25 December 1947. After that her voyages included three cruises to the West coast of the USA including San Francisco, and voyages from Europe to Australia.

In 1958 she was converted to carry 342 Cabin Class and 722 Tourist Class passengers on an independent schedule, and in 1961 she became a single class ship carrying a maximum of 1,691 passengers, although the demand for sea voyages to Australia was declining.

Orion was retired in 1963, and left on her final voyage on 28 February 1963, sailing for Sydney, Australia via Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

, Greece and Suez

Suez

Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...

. She departed Sydney for the last time on 8 April via Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and Fremantle

Fremantle, Western Australia

Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...

, arriving back at Tilbury on 15 May 1963.

She was then chartered by Otto Friedrich Behnke GmbH as a floating hotel for the duration of the International Horticultural Exhibition in Hamburg, accommodating 1,150 guests. Orion arrived in Hamburg on 23 May 1963; the Exhibition ended on 30 September and on 1 October she left Hamburg for Antwerp, where she was broken for scrap by Jos Boel et Fils.