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ORSOVA (1954)
Service dates: 1954-1974
Official number: 186017
Shipping lines: ORIENT STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY LTD.; ORIENT LINE; ANDERSON, GREEN & COMPANY; P&O ORIENT LINE; P&O PASSENGER DIVISION
Ship type:
Passenger Liner.
Career
- 14.05.1953
- Launched by Lady Anderson, wife of Sir Colin Anderson, Chairman of her managers Anderson Green & Co Ltd.
- 08.03.1954
- Delivered as Orsova to the Orient Steam Navigation Company Ltd at a cost of £5,776,000. She took her name from a small Danube town on the Romanian side of the frontier with Yugoslavia.
- 17.03.1954
- Maiden voyage London/Sydney.
- 27.04.1955
- Began Orient’s first round-the-World sailing London/Gibraltar/Port Said/Aden/Colombo/Fremantle/Adelaide/Melbourne/Sydney/Auckland/Suva/Vancouver/San Francisco/Los Angeles/Panama/Trinidad/Cherbourg/London.
- 24.05.1956
- Ran aground at Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne and was refloated later the same day.
- 10.1956
- A disillusioned Englishwoman and her ten children stowed away on a homeward voyage from Melbourne after only three months in Australia, but were put ashore at Adelaide.
- 1960
- Began a ten-week refit by Vickers-Armstrongs, including general air-conditioning.
- 02.05.1960
- Management and operation transferred to P&O Orient Lines, although she remained registered in the ownership of Orient Steam Navigation Co Ltd.
- 1964
- Adopted a white P&O hull in place of Orient ‘corn’-colour.
- 31.03.1965
- Ownership transferred to The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
- 01.10.1971
- Management and operation transferred to P&O Passenger Division.
- 02.1971
- Received bad publicity when two crew members appeared in a Sydney court charged with the attempted murder of the Master-at-Arms.
- 02.1972
- Made a 240km (150 mile) mercy dash to help an officer with thrombosis on board the Americam tug Tecumseh.
- 11.1972
- 300 passengers and crew taken ill with a mild form of dysentery.
- 17.12.1972
- Sailed on a first-class-only Christmas cruise after a 3-week refit.
- 08.1973
- Withdrawal announced.
- 10.1973
- Her boats rescued three yachtsmen in difficulties during a sudden squall off Opatija, Yugoslavia.
- 25.11.1973
- Arrived in Southampton for the last time.
- 14.12.1973
- Left Southampton for Taiwan.
- 14.02.1974
- Arrived at Kaohsiung.
- 15.02.1974
- Sold to Nan Feng Steel Enterprise Co Ltd, Taiwan, for demolition.
- 17.12.1974
- Demolition commenced.