The Brilliant Oriana

[Brian Probetts (Site Admin)]

Fifty-five years ago, in December 1960, the brilliant Oriana of Britain's P&O-Orient Lines set off on her maiden voyage from the UK to Australia -- Southampton via Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, the Suez Canal, Aden, Colombo, Fremantle & Melbourne to Sydney.
It was 21 days -- the fastest voyage yet. Businessmen especially loved it! The 41,000-ton ship, carrying up to 2,100 passengers, did an extraordinary 27 knots.

Highly popular, the 804-ft long liner was retired from sea-going service in 1986.
She was later used as a museum in Japan and then hotel in China.
Finally, moored at Dalian, she capsized during a typhoon in 2004, was later raised and then -- beyond repair -- was towed away (shown here, in 2005) to a Chinese scrapyard.

[Peter F Chard]

From memory (again ) I think she was built at Barrow in Furness at Vickers at the same time as another Orient Line ship -- the two ships could be seen from across Morecambe Bay at Fleetwood, side by side on the stocks. They were even more visible once they were painted in the Orient Line colours -- bright white ! Regards Peter in NZ.

[Richard Quartermaine]

On my various overseas postings - late '50s to late 80's - wherever practical we opted for sea transport when taking holidays.
Christmas time in 1966 we took the 'Oriana' from Suva to Sydney via Auckland. Here is a photo taken - I think it was Christmas Eve - The Little girl is now a grandmother and her young brother is in his bunk. A lovely ship, as was the 'Orcades' on which I sailed as passenger from San Francisco to Suva in October/November in 1955. Just remembered, My grandmother at age 67 along with my Auntie Lily immigrated to Australia from Bradford, Yorkshire in 1927 on the Orient Line 'Otranto' Orient Line to Australia - OTRANTO

As for speed, another greyhound was the QSTV 'Monarch of Bermuda'. I joined her in 1951 as Chief Stewards' steward whilst the 'Gothic' was in Cammell Lairds for the aborted Royal Tour refit. She was then the immigrant ship 'New Australia'. We did Southampton/Sydney/Southampton in two months, a week and a day.
Richard

[happy daze john in oz]

Very popular ship here in Oz, there are numerous photos of her with the bridge in the background looking the real deal. One of a number of great old ladies of the sea, the ones we were lucky enough to be with.

[Frank Appleford]

I did several voyages on the Oriana Brian and I loved it. As I mentioned in posts here we had 2 engineroom fires while I was on her. One was quite serious and we were towed back to Southampton, which I have posted about on here. Another one was fairly small and quite funny. It was while we were all lined up at our lifeboat drill and they couldn't use the emergency signals again or that would have really confused everybody. Us engineroom blokes were lined up at our boat stations and had noticed that the ship had stopped and we could see a lot of black smoke coming out of the funnel. A deck officer came along and politely asked us to go to the engineroom with the words," Would you please go down below, there's a fire down there. That fire was easily extinguished though and we found the circumstances quite amusing lol. I also have the photos of her scrapping - very sad!

[John Arton]

My cousin, a Lloyds surveyor and later a Salvage Association surveyor, worked on the Oriana when she was being built in Barrow in Furness. This was part of his engineering degree that he was taking where the students had to work in shipyards as part of the degree course. He was sponsored by Lloyds and went on to gain his Chief Engineers ticket serving in New Zealand Shipping Co. on the Manipora and Maniwara (uncertain of correct spelling).
rgds
JA

[Terry Clarke]

Joined the Oriana in Barrow in Furness fitting out birth with two friends Len Welsh and Tony Frecknall in late 59 if memory still serves me right, from their to do the trials off Arran and then down thro the Irish Sea to Falmouth to dry dock to remove chain eyes etc from original launching, on to Southampton her home Port, from there a three day shake down cruise carrying all the Travell agents down to Lisbon, where if I remember correctly a gash was put in her side when the bow and stern thrusters were used to dock her, after a few hours of repairs back to Southampton for the start of her Maiden voyage to Oz, great trip even if we did hit an American aircraft carrier in the fog one morning entering Los Angeles, stayed on her a few trips one of my favourite ships of my time at sea..

[alan vickers]

Hi Terry, the US aircraft carrier was the Kersage, I think we won that one, we finished up with a "shark jaw" in the bow but managed to *ripple* their flight deck.

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Hi Peter, just to correct you, the Orient line,ships wore a corn coloured hull paint and were not painted white until taken over by P&O.

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[QUOTE=Peter F Chard;219768]From memory (again ) I think she was built at Barrow in Furness at Vickers at the same time as another Orient Line ship -- the two ships could be seen from across Morecambe Bay at Fleetwood, side by side on the stocks. They were even more visible once they were painted in the Orient Line colours -- bright white ! Regards Peter in NZ

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Hi Peter, Orient lines had corn coloured hulls, Only became white when taken over by P&O.

[Peter F Chard]

#8 Hi Alan, Was it the superstructure I could see, I think they were white ? Cheers Peter in NZ

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, bunker her a few times in southampton, never sailed on her, have a few odds and sods with her name on them {nice ship} was the nick name the milk bottle? I was on so many of the big ships in them days.