Oriana destined for shipbreakers

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 14

Oriana destined for shipbreakers

By

JOHN LESLIE

The popular P and O cruise liner Oriana (41,910 tons) will in March be destined for the shipbreakers. Before then, thousands of New Zealanders and others will have enjoyed their last Pacific cruise aboard this handsome giant. The Oriana, built at Barrow in Furness in 1960, at a cost of £l4 million, is the largest passenger liner ever built in England — as any good Scotsman or Ulsterman knows. The famous former Orient Steam Navigation Company, Ltd, was founded in 1878 to provide a service between Britain and Australia. The names of all its passenger liners began with O. At

the outbreak of World War II there were eight splendid liners — Orama, Ormonde, Oronsay, Otranto, Orford, Orcades, Orontes, and Orion — but four were lost subsequently by enemy action: Orama, Oronsay, Orford, and Orcades. In 1960, the Orient Line was absorbed by P and O — which has absorbed many great shipping lines in its history — as P and O-Orient Lines. Until then, Orient and P and O had been great rivals on the United Kingdom-Austrafia run, and P and O actually had shares in the Orient Line even when the latter was running in opposition to it. In 1966 the joint company became simply, P and O Lines. The Orient Line had unusual beginnings. In 1877, the London stockbroking firm of Anderson and Anderson and Company, in conjunction with Frederick Green and Company, chartered four surplus steamers of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company to run a passenger service to Australia via the Cape of Good Hope. This firm subsequently bought these vessels and the Orient Line was formed.. In conjunction with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company a nucleus fleet was built up, first the Orient (1879) followed by the Austral (1881). Early this century, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, having sold its Australian fleet to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, disappeared from the Australian scene.

After 1883, all regular Orient Line sailings were via Suez to Australia. Much later, the handsome twin-funnelled Orient liners with their black hulls, white superstructure, and buff funnels made an attractive contrast to the distinctive black and tan P and O liners in the Suez Canal.

Subsequently, both great companies amended their colour schemes. Today, P and O proper prefers the white hull and buff funnel, a big break with earlier tradition.

The original traditional run for Orient Line vessels linked Tilbury (London), Port Said, Suez Canal, Aden, Colombo, Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. There were occasional variations, of course, and as draught increased with larger vessels Brisbane was eliminated.

What a magnificent sight those earlier Orient liners made as they steamed majestically up

and down the Brisbane River under skilled pilotage. , In 1954, the Orient Line, as it still was then, had begun a popular Pacific service (global, in fact.) The Matson Line (American) was still serving the Pacific run but there was a vacuum left by the withdrawal of the Union Steam Ship Company and the Canadian Pacific Line (CPR). Orient filled the vacuum by sending its ships onwards from Sydney or Auckland via Suva and Honolulu to Vancouver and the North Pacific coast. In the early years of P and O-Orient Lines this eastbound Pacific route was a popular one, the ships sometimes touching at Los Angeles, Acapulco, and Miami en voyage to London. Today, apart from occasional special voyages, the P and O passenger liners engage mostly in cruising, not least the Pacific Princess (the “Love Boat” of television fame.)

Thousands of older New Zealanders and Australians will have enjoyed trips to and from Europe via Suez in the heyday of the great liners, especially the great Orient liners of the Suez Canal. One tends to think more of the postwar liners , all singlefunnel O ships — Orion, Orcades, Oronsay, Orsova, and of course the last and largest of them all, the Oriana, soon to depart the scene.

But the earlier liners were attractive, too, representing a more restful era of sea travel. These included the Orvieto, Osterly, Otranto, Orama, and their kind. Orient liners had allEuropean crews from memory, but P and O liners had mainly European officers and Asian crews. Orient Line officers mingled freely with the passengers. P and O officers, apart from senior officers, in earlier days were not officially permitted to do so. Nevertheless, many officers in both great shipping lines married Australian girls — what better stage for romance than an ocean liner?

Nearer to home, Orient Line vessels were no strangers to Lyttelton. The visiit of the former Orion (23,696 tons), built in 1935, and an attractive vessel by post-war standards, brought members of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. home to Lyttelton in February, 1946. That was a day to remember.

In a howling, southeasterly gale, the then Harbourmaster, Captain A. R. Champion, better

known in more recent years as a former chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, • made a masterly job of berthing the big liner in the inner harbour. He turned the Orion (665 ft in length) right round inside the inner harbour basin (only 990 ft) and berthed her port side to the wharf, finally using two tugs. This remarkable achievement is still recalled by Lyttelton people.

For those who would like to know what happened to this Orion, she was broken up at Tamise (Belgium) in 1964. As for the Oriana, she too has visited Lyttelton. In December, 1961, before Cashin Quay was built, the Oriana made a one-day call at Lyttelton, anchoring just inside the Heads. Large, motorised lifeboats ferried passengers and visitors to and from Lyttelton township. As I boarded the Oriana that day, I was greeted, with others, by a public relations Officer — a viscount to boot. Lords as well as labourers have to earn their living today. He murmured something about “a drink” later on, but business came first.

Lyttelton was as busy as any city that day and the harbour was alive with small craft. It was a festive occasion. Will the noble Oriana really go to the shipbreakers or will she end under a flag of convenience and with some strange new name, still catering for the cruising public? We must wait and see.