Orbita (ship)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Orbita was an ocean liner put into service in 1914 for the British shipping company Pacific Steam Navigation Company , which was built for passenger and freight traffic from Liverpool to South America . Because of the war, the ship could only be used as a passenger ship from 1919. In 1921 she was chartered to the Royal Mail Line , which she bought in 1923. The ship was scrapped in 1950.
history
The 15,495 GRT steamship Orbita was built in 1914 in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the renowned Harland & Wolff shipyard. The orbita , 167.7 meters long and 20.5 meters wide , had a single chimney, two masts and three propellers . The maximum speed was 14 knots (25.9 km / h).
The ship could accommodate 190 passengers in the first, 221 in the second and 476 in the third class. She was the second of three new sister ships to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. The others were the Orduna (built in 1914 / 15,499 GRT) and the Orca (built in 1918 / 16,063 GRT). The Orbita was launched on July 7, 1914, but could not immediately be used as a passenger ship because of the outbreak of the First World War . She was first used as an auxiliary cruiser and then as a troop transport.
It was only after the end of the war, on September 26, 1919, that the Orbita was able to set off for its first civil passenger journey when it left Liverpool for Rio de Janeiro , Montevideo and Valparaíso . On April 30, 1921, she was chartered to the Royal Mail Line , which also used the services of its sister ships Orduna and Orca . For this shipping company she drove on the Hamburg - Southampton - Cherbourg route . The Royal Mail Line bought the Orbita and also the Orduna on January 1, 1923, after which the passenger accommodation was converted into a one-class company.
In July 1926, the Orbita and the Orduna were completely overhauled. The firing of the boilers was switched from coal to oil and the passenger areas were redesigned so that passengers in the cabin class, tourist class and third class could now be accommodated. On September 10, 1926, the Orbita laid out for its last voyage from Southampton via Cherbourg to New York. From November 4, 1926, she served the route Liverpool - Panama Canal - Valparaíso, on which she remained until 1940.
The steamer then served as a troop transport during World War II . Between 1946 and 1950 the Orbita transported emigrants from Australia to New Zealand . The Orbita played an important role in the emerging multicultural society in the United Kingdom , as it was only the second time in the history of Great Britain that it immigrated from the West Indies after the Empire Windrush , which entered service as Monte Rosa for the German shipping company HAPAG in 1931 brought to England.
1950 was orbit in Newport ( South Wales ) are dismantled.
