SS ORONTES, Orient Line (20,000 Tons)
Photographer
Beken & Son
(British)
Publisher
J Arthur Dixon Limited
(British, 1926 - 1998)
Date1961
Object number00055485
NamePostcard
MediumPhotogravure print on paper
DimensionsOverall: 99 × 146 mm
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Bob Manderson
DescriptionThis souvenir postcard was collected by 23-year-old Bob Manderson, who emigrated from Scotland to Australia as a Ten Pound Scot on SS ORONTES in 1961.HistoryTwenty-three-year-old Bob Manderson emigrated from Glasgow, Scotland, to Australia as a Ten Pound Scot in 1961. He travelled with his friend Bob Mitchell. They embarked from Southampton, England, on the Orient liner SS ORONTES on 31 January 1961 and arrived in Fremantle on 28 February 1961. Bob Manderson travelled on one of ORONTES' final voyages before it was scrapped in 1962, recording the journey with a camera he had purchased en route in Aden.
ORONTES was built for the Orient Steam Navigation Co by Vickers Armstrongs Ltd in Barrow-in-Furness, north west England, for the British-Australian route. It was launched 27 February 1929. After fit-out, sea trials in September and several short summer cruises around the southern English coast, ORONTES left Tilbury on its maiden voyage to Australia on 26 October 1929.
SS ORONTES was the last of Orient Line's five 20,000 ton Orama class ships built in the 1920s for the mail and passenger service between the United Kingdom and Australia. It was Orient Line's second ship of that name. The first operated from 1902-1929. The other four were ORAMA launched May 1924, ORONSAY, August 1924, OTRANTO June 1925 and ORFORD September 1927.
The five ships shared a general arrangement and design features, except that ORONTES was larger and had a raked stem, modern for the time. All catered for two classes of passengers, ORONTES had 500 first class berths (on decks A to F amidships) and 1112 third class berths (decks G to H). The dining and sports facilites were applauded for their design and comfort with cafes, lounges, dining saloons, a swimming bath, several tennis and numerous deck quoits and games courts, as was the spaciousness of the deck area and the third class facilities in general.
From 1929 to 1940 ORONTES carried thousands of migrants and travellers from England to Australia, and return. In the main they were Britons but also Europeans of various cultural backgrounds. By 1933 the third class accomodation was upgraded and the number of berths reduced to 518 tourist and 463 first class. Famous passengers included the English cricket team on the way to the Bodyline tour in 1932. In 1939 the ship made one voyage across the Tasman from Australia to New Zealand.
In the early months of the World War II the ship was in its last months of cruising. On 16 April 1940 ORONTES was requisitioned as a troop carrier in the UK and refitted to accommodate 3,226 men. They slept in hammocks: 308 in the third class dining saloon and 1762 on F,G and H decks.
Its first voyage to Australia via South Africa drew enemy aircraft fire in the Downs off the coast of Kent. On the return voyage the ship transported troops from Australia for Singapore along with a cargo of Wirraway and Hudson aircraft, and en route, picked up troops in India for Europe.
During its seven year service ORONTES was involved in landings in north Africa, Sicily and Salerno, surviving intense aerial bombardment by German aircraft. The liner carried troops to Italy from North America via the Atlantic route, and from Capetown, the Middle East and Sri Lanka. In late 1943 ORONTES transferred to long distance trooping to India, Japan and the Pacific. In 1945 the ship carried French troops to Ho Chi Minh city (then Saigon) to reimpose French colonial rule. On its return to Southampton in May 1946 the ship was quarantined due to a smallpox case, with 4,500 troops on board.
In January 1947 ORONTES left Melbourne for Cushaven Germany to return Prisoners of War from Australian camps to Europe, including German internees from the SYDNEY KORMORAN engagement.
In April 1947 ORONTES was released from Government service having clocked up the most 'miles' travelled by any liner during the war @ 790,000km.
The ship was returned to the Orient Line service and refitted at the Thornycroft shipyard, Southampton UK to carry 502 first and 618 tourist 'B' class passengers. It was restored to its pre-war livery and served once again on the England to Australia route.
On 15 June 1947 the press was invited on board the reconditioned liner, when company representative FA Geddes adressed the group 'By prewar standards ORONTES is no longer a new ship, but the old standards have changed, ... we have to alter our ideas and ships must be made to have a longer useful life than they had before the war....' Among the major improvements were hot and cold running water in all cabins, a sprinkler fire system, and redesigned accomodations. [Neil McCart Passenger ships of the Orient Line, 1987].
Two days later ORONTES left Tilbury for Australia on its first post-war commercial voyage with more than 1100 passengers.
In 1953 in the context of Australia's post-war immigration push, the ship was refitted with an extra 250 berths to carry 1372 tourist one-class passengers. It joined ships including OTRANTO, STRATHNAVER and the NEW AUSTRALIA carrying assisted immigrants for the Australian Government's 'ten pound pom' scheme and with assistance from the Apex club, the 'Bring out a Briton' scheme, and various migration schemes for children and young people sponsored by organisations such as Big Brother.
In 1960 the Orient Line formally merged with its majority shareholder the Peninsular & Oriental Line, P&O.
On 25 November 1961 SS ORONTES left Tilbury on its final voyage to Australia, returning ex Sydney on 12 January 1962. Six weeks later, 5 March 1962, the ship arrived at shipbreakers JF Ordas in Valencia to be scrapped.SignificanceThis postcard relates to a personal experience of immigration on ORONTES, allowing us to explore wider themes of immigration including assisted passage and the White Australia policy. The majority of the museum's existing holdings date to earlier periods of the ship's career pre-WWII, whereas this object relates to assisted British migration in the 1960s and one of ORONTES' very last passenger voyages. It adds a personal perspective to the builder's model of ORONTES in the ANMM collection (00055182).
8 April 1950
