SS ''Orontes'' was a passenger ship owned by Orient Line. The ship was built in 1929 by Vickers Armstrong at

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Its sister ships were ''Orama'' (II), ''Orford'', '' Oronsay'', and ''Otranto'' (II). Orontes was the last of the "Orama" Class and great effort was taken to make the public rooms of ''Orontes'' the best of this class. The name had previously belonged to the ''

RMS Orontes RMS ''Orontes'' was a steam ocean liner of the Orient Steam Navigation Company that was launched in 1902 and scrapped in 1925. ''Orontes'' was a troop ship in the First World War. In 1922 she was sold for conversion into an exhibition ship, but ...

'', an earlier ship owned by the Orient Line.

Service

''Orontes'' maiden voyage was a

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

Cruise in June 1929. From 1929 to 1940, it served on the England to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

route. It carried the England cricket team on the way to the Bodyline tour in 1932. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, ''Orontes'' became a troopship, serving that role from 1940 to 1947. In 1947 ''Orontes'' transported World War II prisoners of war from Melbourne to

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven ...

, West Germany. The ship served on the England to Australia route from 1948 to 1962, being refitted as a single class passenger ship at Thornycroft in 1953. In August 1958, ''Orontes'' was involved in a collision with SS ''Empire Baltic'', a landing ship used as a ferry on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. The ''Orontes'' was scrapped at

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, in 1962.

Service

References

Further reading