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World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

Cruise ship

SS Oronsay

IMO 5265617United KingdomBuilt 1951

Operated by Orient Steam Navigation Company

Photo: Item is held by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. · Public domain · file

No gross tonnage is recorded for this vessel, so it cannot be ranked by size. Rank is only shown where the underlying measurement exists.

In brief

About SS Oronsay

Full article ↗

SS Oronsay was the second Orient Line ship built after World War II. A sister ship to Orcades, she was named after the island of Oronsay off the west coast of Scotland.
The liner was completed in 1951 at Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness, but was delivered several months behind schedule because of a serious fire that broke out in the fitting-out berth. The Oronsay operated the UK to Australasia service, via the Suez Canal. Her accommodation set new standards, in both first and tourist class, with decor by Brian O'Rourke.
On 1 January 1954, Oronsay left Sydney on the first Orient Line transpacific voyage to Auckland, Suva, Honolulu, Victoria, Vancouver and San Francisco, returning via the same ports. In later years the transpacific sailings became a regular feature of the Orient/P&O services.
In 1960 the Orient Line and P&O fleets were merged under the control of P&O-Orient Lines (Passenger Services) Ltd. Oronsay continued to operate under the Orient houseflag and retained her corn-coloured hull until 1964, when her hull was painted P&O white. In 1966, P&O having acquired the balance of the Orient shares (it had controlled Orient since 1919), Orient Line was wound up and Oronsay, along with her fleet mates, was transferred to the ownership of P&O and hoisted the P&O houseflag.

Quoted from SS Oronsay (1950) on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Vessel particulars

Identification and dimensions

Every value is as recorded in the source. Blanks are values the source does not hold — none is estimated from a sister ship or a class average.

Identification

IMO number: 5265617
IMO check digit: Valid
MMSI
Call sign
Flag state: United Kingdom
Port of registry: —
Vessel class: —
Status: in service

Construction

Type: Cruise ship
Builder: Vickers
Yard number: 976
Launched: —
Year built: 1951
Designed to carry: —
Owner: 1951–1966 Orient Steam Navigation Company.
Operator on record: Orient Steam Navigation Company

Measurements

Gross tonnage: —
Net tonnage: —
Displacement: —
Length overall: 216.0 m
Beam: 28.5 m
Draft: 9.4 m
Service speed: 22.0 kn
Passenger capacity: 1,551
Deadweight: 10,063 t

In context

How SS Oronsay compares

Every figure in this section is a count, a rank or a percentile over vessels actually held in this registry — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.

United Kingdom is the country of registry for 2,394 vessels in this directory. The most common class under that flag is vessels this registry holds no type classification for (1,835 ships), and the median vessel measures 2,515 GT. Browse every ship flagged United Kingdom.

Narrowing to both dimensions at once, this registry holds 37 cruise ships flying the United Kingdom flag.

SS Oronsay was built in 1951, making it 75 years old. It is one of 151 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 722 GT. Across the whole of the 1950s the registry holds 2,005 vessels, median 960 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.

The registry attributes 12 vessels to Vickers, with a median tonnage of 21,207 GT, delivered between 1922 and 2003. See the rest of that yard’s output.

At 216.0 m overall, SS Oronsay is 17.9 m longer than the 198.1 m median for cruise ships on record, with a beam of 28.5 m and a draft of 9.4 m.

IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 5265617 this registry holds 13 other vessels, whose median build year is 1956 and which range from 1909 to 1962. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 1951.

Its IMO number, 5265617, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 5×7 + 2×6 + 6×5 + 5×4 + 6×3 + 1×2 = 117 — and the last digit of that total, 7, must equal the seventh digit, 7. It does, so this number is well formed.