SS ''Orkla'' was a
steam ship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ca ...
of 250 tons that operated the line between
Thamshavn
Thamshavn or Thamshamn is a small port village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is the site of the port for the town of Orkanger and the ferrosilicon plant Elkem Thamshavn. It is located right along European route ...
in
Orkdal
Orkdal is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Orkland Municipality. It was part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipal ...
and
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
in the
Trondheim Fjord
The Trondheim Fjord or Trondheimsfjorden (), an inlet of the Norwegian Sea, is Norway's third-longest fjord at long. It is located in the west-central part of the country in Trøndelag county, and it stretches from the municipality of Ørland in ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
between 1908 and 1949. It was built at
Trondheims Mekaniske Verksted in Trondheim and went into operation at the same time as the railway line
Thamshavn Line
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opened between Thamshavn and
Løkken Verk
Løkken Verk (sometimes just called Løkken) is a village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located south of the village of Svorkmo, east of the village of Bjørnli, and north of the municipal center of Meldal. ...
. It operated two round trips each day and was owned by
Chr. Salvesen & Chr. Thams's Communications Aktieselskab, who also owned the railway.
When it was delivered it was the fastest (making 13 knots on the test run) and one of the grandest local boats in the country and was nicknamed "the Trondheim Fjord's white swan". During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the ship reduced its operations to one daily round trip due to lack of coal, and was run partly on sawdust. In the 1920s the ship got competition from bus routes on the stretch Trondheim -
Orkanger
Orkanger is a town and the administrative centre of Orkland municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The town is also a former municipality which existed from 1920 until 1963. The town sits at the end of the Orkdal Fjord, an arm of the Trondhei ...
, soon to be operated by the sister company Trondhjem-Orkladal Billag, and throughout the 1920s and 1930s the line lost a lot of traffic. During World War II Orkla had more passengers again, but after the war the number of passengers decreased sharply and in 1949 there were no longer enough passengers or goods to sustain the route. A freight route was kept up until 1959 with the smaller motor boat MS ''Elna''.
''Orkla'' was sold to a Belgian company, and was supposed to be used on the river Congo. However, there seems to be no record of her going there. She was sailed across the Atlantic, and in 1962 she was seen by a Norwegian ship's engineer in Talara, Peru.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orkla
Ships built in Trondheim
Passenger ships of Norway
Orkla ASA
1908 ships
Steamships of Norway
World War II merchant ships of Norway