PPM revisits Manchester's Belle Vue amusement park - Picture ...

Alan Leonard introduces postcards
featuring the
Ships of the Orient Line
The ships of the Orient Line, which ran services
between England and Australia for almost a century,
are well-represented on photographic postcards,
many of which were obligingly provided for onboard
use by passengers, helping to promote the
caring image of the company’s liners as offering
comfort, speed and safety.
While such cards date only from Edwardian
times and the Orient Steam Navigation Company
was itself established in 1878, its history can be
traced back to the founding in 1797 of the London
shipbroking firm of James Thompson & Company.
This Oilette card numbered
6229 in the extensive series issued by
Raphael Tuck & Sons depicts the SS Omrah. Its caption
identifies her as a twin-screw vessel, 490ft. long,
“employed in the Mail Service between England and Australia”
belonging to the early 1900s during the close
involvement of the Pacific SN Co. The 8,130 ton Omrah,
built by the Fairfield SB & E E Company of Glasgow, began
her maiden voyage from London via the Suez Canal to
Melbourne and Sydney on 3 February 1899. She continued
making regular round voyages to Australia until requisitioned
in August 1914 for use as a troopship. In this role,
she was one of the first convoy bringing back to Orient
Line management in February 1915 but taken over again
for trooping duties from January 1917. She was sunk by
torpedoes from a German submarine off Sardinia on 12
May 1918 - fortunately with only one fatality, as she was
returning from landing troops at Marseilles.
Among the sailing ships it
operated to many parts of the
world was the three-masted
1,000 ton barque Orient, built
at Rotherhithe in 1853 with an
eye to the Gold Rush traffic to
Australia but in the event
used as a Crimean War troop
transport.
The involvement of
members of the Anderson
family from Scotland brought
changes of company name to
Anderson, Thompson & Co.
(1863) and Anderson, Anderson
& Co. (1869). From 1866
the Orient made regular voyages
to and from Australia,
leading to the company
becoming familiarly known
as the Orient Line.
In 1874 it began chartering
steamships, first from
Frederick Green & Co., who
ran services to India, and then
in 1877 from the Pacific
Steam Navigation Company.
Following some reduction in
its services from Liverpool to
South America, the PSNC had
several of its steamships laid
off Birkenhead.
The Anderson and
Green companies chartered
four of them and when their
SS Otway
was one of the five 12,000 ton liners
brought into Orient Line service in 1909. Named after the
Cape south west of Melbourne, this 12,077 ton steamer
making 18 knots was steel-built by the Fairfield company at
Glasgow. Providing accommodation for 280 first, 130 second
and 900 third class passengers, served by a crew of
350, she began her maiden voyage from London to Brisbane
via Suez on 9 July 1909. The Otway is here depicted
on the card numbered s.5377 in the W.H.Smith “Kingsway
Real Photo Series.” Sent home from one of her early voyages,
this example, which bears a penny red Edward VII
stamp, with an indistinct Paquebot postmark, carried the
en route message “Getting along fine, all going well - got
thro Bay of Biscay alright. Had a lovely time at Gibraltar.
Sun is warm, wind cold, sea lovely blue, very calm. Love,
George.”
After 17 round voyages to Australia, the Otway was
back at Tilbury in November 1914, to be requisitioned and
speedily converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Helping
to enforce the blockade of German ports, she was
involved in intercepting a score of vessels before being hit
by a torpedo from the German submarine UC 49 north
west of St. Kilda on 22 July 1917 while serving with the
Northern Patrol. Ten men were killed in the initial explosion
but the rest of the crew were able to get away in boats
while the Otway was sinking.
SS Orient
voyages to Australia proved
profitable, the partners exercised
their option to purchase.
In February 1878 they
formed the Orient Steam
Navigation Company (with an
initial capital of precisely
£44,642); the PSNC became a
major subscriber, leasing
another four of its steamships
to extend the Orient Line service
to Australia.
The company then ordered
its first purpose-designed
steamship, the 5,386 ton Orient,
built at John Elder’s yard
in Glasgow. The previous
bearer of that name was
thereupon withdrawn, while
the second Orient left London
on her maiden voyage on 3
November 1879, reaching
Adelaide in 38 days.
The next addition to the
Another of the Orient Line’s
1909 quintet was given the
name of Osterley, from the
Park and Robert Adam mansion
in Middlesex, now a
National Trust property.
Subject of Kingsway RP card
number s.5136, the 12,129
ton twin-screw vessel was
built at Glasgow by the London
& Glasgow Iron Shipbuilding
Co. Ltd. She made
round trips to Australia
from August 1909 until
April 1917, when she was
requisitioned to carry
troops between Australia,
Egypt and Britain and also across the
Atlantic. Released from Government duties in 1919, the
Osterley was refitted and resumed regular services to Australia.
In the summer in 1922 she was chartered for summer
cruises from New York to the Norwegian fjords and
later ran further cruises in between scheduled voyages
linking Tilbury and Brisbane. After 20 years intensive service,
the Osterley was withdrawn in February 1929 and laid
up, to be sold a year later for breaking up on the Clyde.
36 Picture Postcard Monthly July 2010