The Orford was a 1928 passenger ship of the British shipping company Orient Steam Navigation Company , which was used in passenger and mail traffic from Great Britain to Australia . In 1940 the ship was hit by German bombs, set aground and abandoned while serving as a troop transport off Marseille. In 1947 the wreck was scrapped in Italy.
The 19,941 GRT steam turbine ship Orford was built at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness . The ship, 192.7 meters long and 23 meters wide, had two chimneys, two masts and two propellers . She was powered by two steam turbines that made 20,000 SHP and allowed a speed of 18 knots. The ship was designed to accommodate 520 first-class passengers and 1160 third-class passengers.
The Orford was the penultimate of five sister ships, all of which weighed around 20,000 GRT and entered service in the second half of the 1920s. The others were the Orama (II) (1924), the Oronsay (I) (1925), the Otranto (II) (1926) and the Orontes (II) (1929). The Orford was launched on September 27, 1927 and was completed in March 1928. Until the outbreak of war she operated on the Australian route and, like most of the other ships of the Orient Steam Navigation Company, was occasionally used for cruises . In March 1932, the Orford led the ship parade to mark the opening of the Sydney Harbor Bridge . On a trip in 1934, she brought Donald Bradman's cricket team and the Australian Davis Cup team to Australia.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the ship was converted into a troop transport . It was chartered by the French government to transport French troops to Madagascar, among other places . On June 1, 1940 , while anchored in Marseille , the Orford was attacked by German fighter-bombers and set on fire, killing 14 people. The ship went up in flames, ran aground and was abandoned. It was not until 1947 that the wreck was towed to Savona and scrapped there.
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