SS Orbita

SS Orbita was an ocean liner built in 1913-14 by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was launched on Tuesday, 7 July 1914. Her sister ships were SS Orduna and SS Orca.[2]

SS Orbita in 1916
History
United Kingdom
NameSS Orbita
OwnerPacific Steam Navigation Company
Operator
Port of registryUnited Kingdom Liverpool
RouteNorth Atlantic service
BuilderHarland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number440
Launched7 July 1914
Completed31 July 1915
Maiden voyage26 September 1919
In service1915
Out of service1950
IdentificationOfficial Number 137467
FateScrapped, 1950, in Newport
General characteristics
TypeOcean liner
Tonnage15,495 GRT
Length550.3 feet (167.7 m)
Beam67.3 feet (20.5 m)
Draught35 feet 10+1⁄4 inches (10.93 m)
Depth43.0 feet (13.1 m)
PropulsionTriple-expansion engines + low-pressure turbine; Triple screw[1]
Speed15 knots (28 km/h)
Capacity896 passengers

She provided transatlantic passenger transport, measured about 15,500 gross register tons, and was 550.3 ft x 67.3 ft.

History

From 1921 to 1923 the Orbita was chartered to operate the Royal Mail's United Kingdom – New York City service. In 1923 she was transferred to Royal Mail ownership, remaining with them for three years before reverting to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company.[3]

Between 1946 and 1950 the Orbita was used as a troopship and to transport emigrants to Australia and New Zealand.[4] The Orbita was an important part of the history of multiracialism in the United Kingdom, arriving with the second group of immigrants from the West Indies (after the Empire Windrush). The passengers were part of the first large group of West Indian immigrants to the UK after the Second World War.[5]

War service


In 1941, during the Second World War, she was again requisitioned as a troop ship.

On 18th December, 1940 she departed as part of a convoy from Liverpool with 530 RAF personnel bound for Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The personnel were sent to set up 42 Air School, as part of the Joint Air Training Scheme set up by Prime Minister Jan Smuts and Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke Popham to train British and South African airmen.[6] South Africa provided all the ground facilities (airfields, hangars, accommodation, etc), and Britain supplied the training personnel, aircraft, and training equipment.[7]

En-route the convoy was shelled by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper at 07.00 hours on Christmas Day 1940, and the convoy scattered. Although gun flashes were seen through fog by the RAF contingent, only one ship was hit, which returned to Gibraltar for repairs. The convoy re-assembled at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where supplies were taken on. "Orbita" arrived in Port Elizabeth on 23rd January 1941.[8]

The ship transported 268 men of the first unit of British Honduran Foresters from Durban via Trinidad and Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the Port of Liverpool on 12 September 1941 (Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Kew, Surrey, England). She continued as a troop ship until at least 1949.[9]

Demise

The SS Orbita was dismantled in October 1950 in Newport, South Wales.[10]

References
  1. postcard of sister ship, RMSP Orbita
  2. RMSPCo
  3. Pacific Steam Navigation Company Archived 5 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Saville's Ships: Orbita
  5. MV Empire Windrush
  6. A Portrait of Military Aviation in South Africa' by Ron Belling. Struikhof Publishers, 1989.
  7. "42 Air School, Port Elizabeth", by Paul Stringer, "Looking Back" Journal of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth, Vol 56, 2017.
  8. "42 Air School, Port Elizabeth", by Paul Stringer, "Looking Back" Journal of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth, Vol 56, 2017.
  9. Signalman Wader´s Diary Part 6: My Journey Home
  10. Miramar Ship Index: SS Orbita
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