AORANGI

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aukepalmhof
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AORANGI

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed May 13, 2020 9:00 pm

Built as a cargo-passenger vessel under yard No 603 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, Govan, Scotland for the Union SS Co. of New Zealand Ltd., London.
November 1922 keel laid down.
17 June 1924 launched as the AORANGI, the Maori name for Mount Cook, South Island of New Zealand.
Tonnage 17,491 grt. Dim. 182.88 x 22.0m, draught 9.11m, lpp 176.8m.
Powered by four Sulzer 6-cyl. ST70 2SA diesel engines manufactured by the builder, 3,177 nhp, driving quadruple screws, service speed 17 knots. At that time she was the fastest motor-powered liner in the world.
Passenger accommodation for 386 first-class, 56 interchangeable first or second class, 284-second class, and 227 third-class passengers.
16 December 1924 completed, homeport London.

She was built for the Trans-Pacific service from Canada to New Zealand, Australia.
After completing she sailed to Southampton to board passengers for her maiden voyage.
03 January 1925 she sailed from Southampton across the Atlantic through the Panama Canal to Vancouver where she arrived on 04 February, leaving there 06 February for her first Trans-Pacific voyage via Hawaii to Auckland where she arrived on 24 February.
The line was not very profitable and lost money, and the Union Line sold some shares of the line to the Canada Pacific Line and the new company the Canadian Australasian Line Ltd. was formed, AORANGI was transferred to this new company. The management of the ship stayed with the Union Line.
1938 The accommodation was reduced to 248 first-class, 266 cabins, and 125 third class.
12 July 1941 she was requisitioned with the intention to refit her in a troopship, but during the voyage to the UK she received orders to evacuate women and children from Singapore, after disembarking the passengers in Australia she sailed again for the UK.
Her first troop voyage was from the UK to India via the Cape of Good Hope, later when the USA joined the war she made regular crossings from the USA to Europe with troops.
1944 Was she refitted in an accommodation-depot ship for small craft crews in preparation for the invasion in Normandy. Stationed in the Solent off the island of Wight.
July 1944 she sailed to the Clyde for a refit as an accommodation-depot ship for submarine crews.
March 1945 she got orders to proceed to Trincomalee, Ceylon, but was not used there and ordered to sail to Fremantle where she stayed three months before she sailed to Sydney for a conversion in a Commodore ship for the British Pacific Fleet.
August 1945 she sailed from Sydney bound for Hong Kong where she stayed until May 1946, where after she was returned to owners.
After sailing to Australia she was refitted again in a liner by Mort’s Dock, Sydney, the refit took about two years.
Accommodation after the refit; 212 first class, 170 cabin, and 104 third class. Her hull was painted white with a green band, but after two round trips in the Trans-Pacific service, the hull was repainted in the old green colour again.
Her homeport was changed to Wellington.
The line lost money and after she left Sydney in December 1950 the company announced that the vessel was withdrawn from service on her return voyage.
When the Governments of New Zealand, Australian and Canadian offered a subsidy she was put again in service on 05 April 1951. But returns were poor and in 1953 the subsidies were not renewed and that was the end of the line.
After she arrived back in Australia on 08 June 1953 she was already sold to the breakers.
18 June 1953 she sailed for the last time from Sydney bound for the scrapyard in Great Britain.
25 July 1953 she was delivered to the British Iron & Steel Corporation by the scrapyard of W. H. Arnott Young in Dalmuir.

A lot of photos are given on: http://ssmaritime.com/Aorangi-II.htm

Source: Passenger ships of Australia & New Zealand by Peter Plowman. And the Internet.
Guinea Bissau 2020 1100 FCFA 1100 sg?, scott?
Attachments
aorangi 1924.png
2020 aorangi(2).jpg

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