SS Orcades (1937)

For other ships of the same name, see Orcades (disambiguation).

Orcades c.1937
Career
Name:	RMS Orcades (1937-1939) HMT Orcades (1939-1942)
Owner:	Orient Steam Navigation Company (Orient Line) 1937-1939
Route:	UK-Australia 1937-1939 British troop ship 1939-1942
Builder:	Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness, England
Completed:	1937
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk 10 October 1942 by German U-172 during Second World War
General characteristics
Tonnage:	23,456
Length:	201.2 m
Beam:	25.0 m
Draught:	9.1 m
Installed power:	Six Parsons single reduction gear turbine engines
Propulsion:	Twin screws
Capacity:	1,068 passengers
Notes:	Sank 500 km WSW of the Cape of Good Hope

RMS Orcades was a British built ocean liner that served on the UK-Australia route as a Royal Mail Ship from 1937-1939. Orcades was requistioned by the British government as a troopship in 1939.

Torpedoed and sunk by German U-172 on 10 October 1942 with the loss of 48 lives and 1,117 survivors. The survivors were picked up by the SS Narvik a Polish steamship of 7,000 gross tons and owned by the Gdynia America Line. RMS Orcades, commanded by a Captain Fox, left Capetown on the 9th October 1942. On the 10th October at about 11:30 in the morning she was hit by 2 torpedoes, but did not sink immediately. A third torpedo missed but a fourth hit and she settled beneath the waves at about 14:00.

The U172 was a 9C type submarine and she was commanded by Kapitan Lieutenant Carl Emmerman who was born in Hamburg in March 1915.

The vessel's sister ship was Orion. The interior fittings of Orcades and Orion were designed by New Zealand born modernist architect Brian OʼRorke.^[1]

Orcades is an ancient name^[2] for the Orkney Islands.

References

1. ^ Quartermain
2. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica

• Latimer, David W (2002) Passenger ships of the 20th century: an illustrated encyclopedia, p.259, Colourpoint Books ISBN 1 898392 70 6
• National Archives of Australia
• State Library of Victoria
• U-172

Footnotes

1. Quartermain, Peter and Peter, Bruce (2006) Cruise: Identity, Design and Culture, p.39, Laurence King Publishing ISBN 1 856694 46 1

2. Encyclopedia Britannica