SS Orontes

Not to be confused with HMS Orontes or RMS Orontes.

SS Orontes was an Orient Steam Navigation Company ocean liner. Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, England built her in 1929. She was the second Orient Line ships to be named after the Orontes River. The first was RMS Orontes, which had been scrapped in 1925.

A publicity image of Orontes
History
United Kingdom
Name	Orontes
Namesake	Orontes River
Owner	Orient Steam Navigation Company
Port of registry	Barrow
Route	England – Australia (1929–40; 1948–62)
Builder	Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Yard number	637
Launched	26 February 1929
Completed	July 1929
Maiden voyage	1929
Refit	1947–48; 1953
Identification	Until 1934: code letters LDPF By 1930: call sign GBXM
Fate	Scrapped in Spain, 1962
General characteristics
Type	ocean liner
Tonnage	19,770 GRT; 12,020 NRT
Length	664 ft (202 m) overall: 638.2 ft (194.5 m) registered
Beam	75.3 ft (23.0 m)
Draught	30 ft 2 in (9.19 m)
Depth	33.1 ft (10.1 m)
Decks	3
Installed power	2 × steam turbines: 3,825 NHP; 20,000 shaft horsepower (15,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × screws
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h)
Capacity	Passengers: 500 × 1st class 1,112 × 3rd class Total: 1,612
Sensors and processing systems	wireless direction finding

Her sister ships were Orama, Orford, Oronsay, and Otranto. Orontes was the last of the Orama class to be built. Great effort was taken to make her public rooms the best of the class.^[1]

Service

Orontes' maiden voyage was a Mediterranean cruise. From 1929 to 1940, she worked Orient Line's route between England and Australia. She carried the England cricket team on the way to the Bodyline tour in 1932.^[2]

Orontes was a troopship from 1940 until 1947. In 1947 she repatriated German prisoners of war from Melbourne to Cuxhaven, Germany.^[1]

In 1947 she was refitted, and in 1948 she returned to Orient Line's route between England and Australia. In 1953 John I. Thornycroft & Company refitted her as a one-class ship. In August 1958, she was involved in a collision with Empire Baltic, a landing ship used as a ferry on the River Thames. She was scrapped at Valencia, Spain, in 1962.^[1][3][4]