User:Catherine McLean/RMS Orontes

RMS 'Orontes' new article content ...

The RMS Orontes was a transatlantic ocean liner built for the Orient Steam Navigation Company by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasgow, Scotland, and launched on May 10, 1902. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 24 October, 1902, carrying mail and passengers from London to Suez, Melbourne and Sydney. This would become her regular route.

After the outbreak of World War I, the Orontes initially remained in service on the United Kingdom to Australia route, however in October 1916, she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to a troopship, with the name HMAS Orontes. She made two further voyages from Britain to Australia, before spending some time on the Africa run. In 1917, she was relinquished by the admiralty, as her refrigerated hold made her more useful for transporting dairy products and meat from Australia to Britain.

In 1919, the RMS Orontes resumed her Australia service with calls at Gibraltar, Toulon, Port Said, Colombo, Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and an extension to Brisbane. In 1921, she was laid up in the Thames, and in 1922 she was sold with the intent of converting her to an exhibition vessel, the British Trade.

She was re-acquired by the Orient Line in 1923, and reverted to Orontes, and was scrapped several years later, in either 1926 or 1929.

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