The SS Orbita |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Orbita |
| Owner: | Pacific Steam Navigation Company |
| Operator: | Cunard Line, Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, Pacific Steam Navigation Company |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool, United Kingdom |
| Route: | North Atlantic service |
| Builder: | Harland and Wolff yards in Belfast |
| Launched: | Tuesday 7th July 1914 (1115) |
| Maiden voyage: | 26 Sept. 1919 |
| In service: | 1915 |
| Out of service: | 1950 |
| Identification: | Official number 137467 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1950, in Newport. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 15,486 |
| Length: | 167.7 m (550 ft) |
| Beam: | 25.5 m (67 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Triple screw[1] |
| Speed: | 15 knotts |
| Capacity: | 896 passengers |
Orbita was an ocean liner built in 1913-14 by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was launched from Harland & Wolff ship-yard, on Tuesday the 7th of July 1914 at 1115 GMT. Her sister ships were the SS Orduna and SS Orca.[2]
She provided transatlantic passenger transport, measured approximately 15,500 gross tons, and was 550.3 ft x 67.3 ft.
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From 1921 to 1923 the Orbita was chartered to operate the Royal Mail's United Kingdom - New York 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 immigrants to Australia and New Zealand.[4] The Orbita was a ship that is 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]
The Orbita entered service an armed merchant cruiser and later as a troop ship during the First World War, delaying her maiden voyage as a passenger liner, from Liverpool to Rio de Janeiro, until 1919.[6] In 1941, during the Second World War, she was requisitioned for use as a troop ship - continuing in that role until at least 1949.[7]
She was dismantled in October 1950 in Newport, South Wales.[8]
