''Oriana'' was a

tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

which was built in 1945 as ''Empire Frieda'' by

Ferguson Brothers (Port Glasgow) Ltd. Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited is a shipbuilding company whose yard, located in Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, was established in 1903. It is the last remaining shipbuilder on the lower Clyde and is currently the only ...

Port Glasgow Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recen ...

, Renfrewshire, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Ownership was transferred to the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government age ...

in 1946 and the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

in 1947, when she was renamed ''Oriana''. She struck a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

and sank in the

River Colne, Essex The River Colne ( or ) is a small river that runs through Essex, England and passes through Colchester. It is not a tributary of any other river, instead having an estuary that joins the sea near Brightlingsea. The river's name is of Celtic orig ...

on 19 January 1948 with the loss of all on deck.

Description

The ship was long, with a beam of . She had a depth of and a draught of . She was assessed at , . The ship was propelled by a 900

ihp Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

triple expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

, which had cylinders of diameter by stroke. The engine was built by Ferguson Brother (Port Glasgow) Ltd. It drove a single screw

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

History

''Empire Freetown'' was built in 1945 as yard number 377 by Ferguson Brothers (Port Glasgow) Co. Ltd.,

, Renfrewshire for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was launched on 22 October 1945 and completed on 31 January 1946. Her port of registry was Glasgow. The United Kingdom

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

169463 and

Code Letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

GFDP were allocated. She was operated under the management of the Overseas Towageand Salvage Co. Ltd,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The MoWT became the

in April 1946. She was passed to the

on 31 May 1947 and renamed ''Oriana''. On 19 January 1948, with the French tug ''Vagrant'', she was towing HMMS ''366'' from Chatham Dockyard to Brightlingsea,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

when she struck a

and sank in the

Colne Estuary Colne Estuary is a 2915 hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Brightlingsea in Essex. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, a National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar wetland site of international importanc ...

with the loss of all fifteen of her crew, who all hailed from the Medway Towns, Kent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oriana 1945 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Tugboats of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1948 Ships sunk by mines