Orduna (ship)
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The Orduna was an ocean liner put into service in 1914 by the British shipping company Pacific Steam Navigation Company , which was built for passenger and freight traffic from Liverpool to South America . The ship was chartered to the Cunard Line in 1914 after a few voyages and to the Royal Mail Line in 1921 , which she bought in 1923. In 1927 the Orduna went back to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and in 1950 it was decommissioned as a troop transport after ten years.
Cunard and World War One
The 15,499 GRT steamship Orduna was built in 1913/14 in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the renowned Harland & Wolff shipyard, where the ships of the White Star Line were built. The Orduna , 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). It could accommodate 240 passengers in first, 180 in second and 700 in third class. She was the first of three sister ships to be completed. The others were the Orbita (15,495 GRT, 1914) and the Orca (16,063 GRT, 1918).
The launch took place on October 2, 1913. On February 19, 1914, the Orduna left Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Rio de Janeiro , Montevideo and Valparaíso . The Orduna only made two crossings on this route , after which it was chartered to Cunard. For Cunard, she operated the traditional route Liverpool– New York until 1919 . During the First World War , the steamer was used as a troop transport and cruised between Halifax and Liverpool. She brought, among other things, Quentin Roosevelt , the youngest son of the former US President Theodore Roosevelt , to Europe, where he worked as a fighter pilot and was shot down and killed in 1918.
In December 1914, William S. Hodges from Philadelphia and Mary and Elizabeth Hoy from Chicago were on board the ship. Hodges was killed in 1915 with his wife and children in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and Mary and Elizabeth Hoy in 1917 in the sinking of the RMS Laconia . In January 1915, the Orduna rescued the Russian crew on the sailing ship Loch Torridon , which had been leaked on the west coast of Ireland . In the same year she was attacked by a submarine while crossing New York . However, the torpedo missed its target and the Orduna was able to escape. In 1918 she collided with the 4,406-ton steamer Konkary , which sank as a result.
Between the wars
On April 1, 1920, she was put back on her original South America route. From May 28, 1921, the Orduna drove for the Royal Mail Line on the Hamburg – Southampton – New York route. The Orca and Orbita were also chartered from the Royal Mail Line. In 1923 the three ships were finally bought by the Royal Mail Line. In the same year the Orduna brought ashore the crew of the schooner bark Clitha , which had been set on fire and abandoned on the high seas. In 1925, Dr. James Edward Lough, Dean of New York University , used the ship to bring 213 students to France for a study trip . Lectures were held on board during the crossing.
In 1926 there was a general overhaul, in connection with which the firing of the boilers was switched from coal to oil. The passenger capacity changed to 234 passengers in the first, 186 in the second and 483 in the third class. In 1927 the Orduna was returned to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, for which it drove back to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Valparaíso. From 1930 to 1940 she drove from Liverpool via Panama to Valparaíso.
In August 1938, the Orduna conducted the last of the three so-called Peace Cruises established for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and the World Organization of the Scout Movement . The first took place in 1933 with the Calgaric (the former Orca , which now belonged to the White Star Line) and the second in 1934 with the Adriatic , also White Star. On board were Robert and Olave Baden-Powell with their daughter Heather. On August 8, 1938, the Orduna cast off in Liverpool and returned on August 25 via Dover . The trip took the 460 participants to Reykjavík in Iceland (August 11), Trondheim in Norway (August 15), Copenhagen (August 18) and Belgium (August 21).
Robert Baden-Powell was in poor health and could not leave the ship during the entire voyage. During the stop in Reykjavík, where the Orduna was lying next to the light cruiser Emden , members of the Icelandic scout association Bandalag íslenskra skáta came on board and brought rocks with them so that Baden-Powell could “set foot on Icelandic soil”.
During and after the Second World War
At the same time that in June 1939 Jewish refugees who had come on board the HAPAG passenger steamer St. Louis from Germany were refused entry into Cuba , the Orduna was forbidden to allow 72 refugees to land in Havana . Only 48 other Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia who already had Cuban entry permits were allowed to leave the ship.
In July 1940, the Orduna brought French citizens under escort from Liverpool to Lisbon after the German Wehrmacht invaded France . From February 1941 the Orduna was used by the British government as a troop transport and refugee ship. After Ethiopia was liberated from the Italian occupiers in the spring of 1941, the Orduna brought parts of the West African Division from Berbera to Durban . After the conquest of Madagascar by British troops in 1942, the Vichy governor, Armand Annet , left the island with his staff on board the Orduna , which sailed from Toamasina to Durban. On the return trip to Great Britain, 500 soldiers and officers were on board who were supposed to join the Forces françaises libres .
During the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943, the ship was busy transporting American soldiers from Oran (Algeria) to Naples . In August 1945, the Orduna was the lead ship in an operation to recapture the Malay Peninsula from the Japanese. After the defeat of Japan, 1,700 Japanese prisoners of war were brought from Rangoon to Liverpool on board the Orduna in September 1945 . Troop trips to Southeast Asia , Indochina and Japan followed . In October 1946 the last British troops left the French colonies in North Africa on board the Orduna .
In November 1950 the ship ended its last mission. After ten years of constant use as a troop transport and a total of 36 years of service, the Orduna was in bad shape and could no longer be used as a passenger ship. It was sold for demolition in 1951 and broken up in Dalmuir, Scotland.