 Tug towing SSOrduña to sea | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | SSOrduña |
| Owner | Pacific Steam Navigation Company |
| Operator | |
| Port of registry |  Liverpool |
| Route | North Atlantic |
| Builder | Harland and Wolff,Belfast |
| Launched | 2 October 1913 |
| Maiden voyage | 19 February 1914 |
| Out of service | November 1950 |
| Fate | Scrapped 1951 atDalmuir, Scotland |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | 15,507 GRT |
| Length | 550.3 feet (167.7 m) |
| Beam | 67.3 feet (20.5 m) |
| Draught | 35 feet10+1⁄4 inches (10.93 m) |
| Depth | 43.0 feet (13.1 m) |
| Propulsion | Triple-expansion engines + low-pressure turbine; Triple screw[1] |
| Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Capacity | 896 passengers |
SSOrduña orOrduna was anocean liner built in 1913–14 byHarland and Wolff inBelfast for thePacific Steam Navigation Company. After two voyages she was chartered toCunard Line. In 1921 she went to theRoyal Mail Steam Packet Company, then being resold to the PSNCo in 1926. Her sister ships wereOrbita andOrca.[2]
She providedtransatlantic passenger transport, measured approximately 15,500gross register tons, and was 550.3 ft x 67.3 ft.[3]
During theFirst World War theOrduña was chartered to run the Liverpool to New York passenger service for Cunard, which she would do until 1919.[4]
In January 1915Orduña rescued the Russian crew of the sailing shipLoch Torridon, which had sprung a leak while transporting timber off the west coast ofIreland.[5] Later in July 1915,en route toNew York City,Orduña was targeted by aU-boat. The torpedo, which was spotted by Captain Taylor, missed the ship, which arrived safely.
Orduña was also registered as an auxiliary cruiser during the war, and from late 1915 was used as a troop transport, running from Halifax, Canada to Liverpool, sometimes using a fake gun.[6] With the entry of America into the war, it carried notables such asQuentin Roosevelt on board.[4]
In 1918Orduña collided with the 4,406-ton steamerKonakry, carrying a cargo of ballast fromQueenstown toTrinidad.Konakry was lost in the accident.
In 1919 the British actressMarie Empress went missing after being seen in her cabin the day before theOrduña reached New York. Her disappearance remained a mystery and she was declared dead in 1921.[7]
In April 1923 the ship was involved in another rescue, transporting the crew of thebarquentineClitha, which had been abandoned and set on fire, to England after they had been rescued by theschoonerJean Campbell.
In 1925, Dean James E. Lough of the Extra-Mural Division of the New York University charteredOrduña for the transport of 213 students to France, with lectures taking place on board.[8]
In 1938 theOrduña was used for the third and final 'Peace Cruise', carrying 460Scouters and Guiders, includingRobert andOlave Baden-Powell, and their daughter Heather, on a cruise toIceland,Norway,Denmark andBelgium.Orduna leftLiverpool on 8 August, returning on 25 August viaDover.[9]
Robert Baden-Powell was too ill to leave the ship during the voyage, but parties of local Scouts visited him on the ship at most of the stops, while the Scouters and Guiders on the ship took the opportunity to tour local landmarks and attend receptions. During the stop atReykjavík on Thursday, 11 August, during whichOrduña moored beside the German cruiserEmden, a party from theScouts of Iceland brought some rock on board so that Baden-Powell could still 'set foot in Iceland'.[10] TheOrduña called atTrondheim, Norway, on 15 August,Copenhagen, Denmark on 18 August, and Belgium on Sunday 21 August, before returning to England. In September 1938 she was atNassau, Bahamas and Kingston, Jamaica[11]
During the 1939"Voyage of the Damned" affair, where German Jewish refugees were refused entry intoCuba, theUnited States andCanada, Cuban authorities allowed only 48 passengers, all of whom held landing permits, but refused permission for the remaining 72 passengers aboard theOrduña to land in Havana.[12]
On 12 August 1940, she sailed from Liverpool, arriving in Nassau 30 August, with a privately organised party of 16 children from Belmont Preparatory school, Hassocks Sussex. It was part of a wider Government children's evacuation programmeChildren's Overseas Reception Board during World War II, when the prospect of imminent invasion threatened Britain.
With the need for military transport in theSecond World War, in 1941 she was put into service by theBritish government as atroopship. Another task during the Second World War was that of anevacuation transport.[13][14]
In the autumn of 1945 theOrduña brought back Prisoners of War and internees from the Far East, landing at Princes Landing Stage in Liverpool on 19 October. A memorial to the ships involved in the repatriation was unveiled on the Liverpool waterfront on 15 October 2011.
In 1947 conditions for troops returning fromPort Said in Egypt on theOrduña, said to include overcrowding and poor food, were raised with the Secretary of State for War.[15] One of these voyages from Port Said, arriving in Liverpool on 7 July 1947, also carried many returning members of the Palestine Police.[citation needed]
Orduna was decommissioned and laid up in November 1950 and dismantled the following year inDalmuir,Scotland.[16]
