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by aukepalmhof » Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:34 pm
Built as a passenger- cargo vessel under yard No 637 by Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow for the Orient Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., Glasgow.
26 February 1929 launched as the ORONTES.
Tonnage 20.097 gross, 12.048 net, 26.650dwt., dim. 194.5 x 22.9 x 10.1m.
Powered by two steam turbines, 20.000 shp, twin screw, speed 18.5 knots.
Accommodation for 500 first class and 1.125 third class passengers.
July 1929 completed.
After delivery she made a few cruise voyages to the Mediterranean before she on 26 October 1929 left for her first voyage in the service between Great Britain and Australia.
1939 The service was extended to New Zealand.
1940 Requisitioned by the British Government and refitted in a troopship.
Took part in the landings of the Allies in North Africa, Oran, Sicily, and Salerno.
Also used in the Far East as troopship.
1947 Handed back to owners and rebuilt between 1947-48 by the yard of J.I. Thorncroft in Southampton.
Passenger accommodation for 489 first, and 608 tourist class, crew 464.
Tonnage 20.186 gross.
17 June 1948 again in the service from Great Britain to Australia.
1953 Rebuilt in a one class vessel, accommodation for 1.410 tourist passengers.
25 November 1961 she sailed out from England for her last voyage to Australia.
Then sold for breaking up, arrived by Ordaz & Co., Valencia, Spain, where she arrived on 05 March 1962.
Cocos (Keeling) Islands 1976 50c sg31, scott30, also in the margin of the mint sheet issued in 1984 $1 sgMS114.
Register of Merchant ships completed in 1929. . Orient Line by Newall. North Star to Southern Cross by Maber.
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