Ormeda
Vessel name on Arrival: Orduna
Original Builder: Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Northern Ireland
Original Yard No: 438
Official Number: 135539
Vessel Type: passenger
GRT: 15507
Year Built: 1914
Arrival Date: 16/06/1951
Breakup Started: 19/06/1951
Date First Beached: 12/12/1951
Date Breakup Completed: 26/05/1952
Draught For’d: 15' 10"
Draught Aft: 16' 6"
Name Changes:
1913 : Laid down as ORMEDA for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company
1914 : Completed as ORDUNA for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company
1914 : Sailed on maiden voyage 19-02-1914
Chartered out to the Cunard LIne after two voyages
1923 : Renamed ORMEDA for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
1917 : Ownership changed back to Pacific Steam Navigation Company, name ORMEDA retained
Other Information:
Passenger-Cargo reefer steamship for trans-Atlantic passenger transportation
02-10-1913 : Launched
22-01-1914 : Completed
Nov. 1950 : Decommissioned
Dimensions : 167.7 metres x 25.5 metres
Propulsion : Triple-screwshafts driven by triple-expansion steam reciprocating engines.
Speed : 15 knots
S.S. ORDUNA was built in 1914 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with a tonnage of 15507grt, a length of 570ft, a beam of 67ft 4in and a service speed of 15 knots. She was laid down with the intention of being named Ormeda but was launched on 2nd October 1913 as the Orduna. She commenced her maiden voyage to Valparaiso on 19th February 1914 and in the following October was chartered to Cunard for their Liverpool to New York service, standing in for vessels requisitioned for trooping.
As an Auxiliary Cruiser at the beginning of WWI, she was also used for troop transportation between Halifax and Liverpool – one of her more famous passengers during thios period being Quentin Roosevelt.
On 28th June 1915 she was chased by a U-boat but managed to outrun her attacker some 20 miles from the Smalls. Twelve days later , on 9th July, she was missed by a torpedo when 30 miles south of Queenstown in Southern Ireland.
During December 1915, she carried Canadian troops from Canada to England. In June 1918 she sank a German submarine by gunfire and on 1st December of the same year was in collision with Elder Dempster's 4,406 ton vessel S.S. Konakry, off Galley Head, County Cork, Ireland.
She returned to PSNC on 31st December 1919 and resumed service to Montevideo on 1st April 1920. In 1921 she was transferred to Royal Mail's Hamburg – Southampton – New York service, to cater for a lack of German berths, making her first sailing on 28th May.
In the autumn of 1922 she returned to her builders for a refit and resumed the South American service on 1st January 1923. Converted to oil in 1926 she reverted to PSNC ownership on 7th April 1927, operating the Panama route.
In 1933 the vessel was used for the 3rd and final 'Peace Cruise', carrying 460 Scouts and Guides, including Robert and Olave Baden-Powell and their daughter Heather.
In 1941 she was requisitioned as a troopship and continued in that role until November 1950 when she was de-commissioned and laid up. She was broken up at Dalmuir and Troon in 1951 after 37 years of exemplary service.