Built as a steel fruit carrier with two decks in 1880 under yard no 104 by Aitken & Mansel. Glasgow for the Atlas Steamship Co., Liverpool.
21 August 1880 launched under the name ALENE.
Tonnage 2.104 gross, 1.482 net, dim. 88.52 x 11.07 x 7.16m.
One 3 cyl. triple expansion steam engine, 284 nhp., manufactured by McIlwaine & Mccoll at Belfast, speed 10 knots. One screw.
Passenger accommodation for 58, and 40 crew.
After delivery used in the fruit trade from the West Indies to the U.S.A.
1892 She was lengthened, tonnage increased to 2.293 gross, length 94.72m. New boilers fitted in and a new triple expansion steam engine, 1.850 hp, speed 11 knots.
29 May 1901, the Atlas Steamship Co. was taken over by HAPAG (Hamburg America Line), registered at Hamburg. Used in the fruit trade between the West Indies and New York.
1906 Sold to W.A.Powel, Belize, renamed ORLEANIAN.
1912 Sold to Tropical Fruit SS Co. at Glasgow, again under English flag.
1914 Sold to Orleanian SS Co., New York, a daughter company of United Fruit.
1915 Sold to R.Lawrence Smith, New York.
17 August 1915, in collision with the American pilot boat JAMES GORDON BENNET off Scotland Light, the pilot boat sank with the loss of four men.
23 December 1915 sailed from New York, loaded with barrels of oil, for Malta. She disappeared this voyage, and noting was found of heard again of the ORLEANIAN.
The stamp depict the vessel with Col. Abram Davey of the Salvation Army, she brought in 1887 the Colonel to Jamaica, where he on the island founded the Salvation Army.
On Jamaica 1987 $5 sg 701
Source: Merchant Fleets in profile Vol. 4, by Duncan Haws. Going Bananas by M.H.Goldberg.
Log Book.