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Letters
RMS ORAMA 1 or ORAMA II? Correction
22/09/2012
Hello,
I know I am 2 1/2 years late, but are you 100% sure that the pic you have of the Orama is the 1st boat? (see "Information on the RSS Orama?" It looks awfully like the 2nd RMS Orama built in 1925 in Barrow-in-Furness at Vickers Armstrong Shipyard. My father was 3rd Engineering Officer in the early 1930's. She was sunk in North Sea in 1940, engine room took the torpedo, the surviving crew were the longest serving Merchant Marine POW's. She was on the Australia run. There is a superb model of her in Barrow-in-Furness Dockyard Museum.
Orama II
Best regards
Margery Hinchliffe
Margery,
My picture of Orama came from this site The German U-Boat net.
Ships hit during WWI Orama
NameOrama
TypeArmed merchant cruiser
GRT12,927 tons (one of the largest ships hit)
Country British
Built1911
BuilderJohn Brown & Co., Ltd., Clydebank, Glasgow
OperatorRoyal Navy
HistoryPeace-time operator: Orient Steam Navigation Co.,
Ltd., Glasgow
But you may well be right, I will investigate further.
Best regards,
Mac.
Margery,
I think you are right, the picture I used on AHOY does look like Orama 11.
Orama 1 built in 1911 and sunk in 1917,
S/S ORAMA; Owned by the Orient Steam Navigation Co. And built in 1911 by J. Brown & Co.; 12,927 tons; 551x64.2x39; 13,000 I.h.p.; 18 knots; triple expansion engines & L.P. Turbine; 4x 4.7 in. Guns;
The ocean liner S/S Orama was requisioned by the Admiralty at the beginning of WWI.
On the 19th of October 1917, while in escort with eight US destroyers, she was escorting a convoy of 17 vessels, when at 5.50 in the afternoon she was torpedoed on the port side by the U-boat U-62 (Cdr. Ernst Hashagen). The ship took 4 hours to sink and US destroyer Conynham tried to ram U-62
without success.
Your Orama was of course the second ship to carry the name.
More about Orama 11
The Wartime Memories Project - SS Orama Information.
The Orama was built by Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness in 1924 for the
Orient Line with accommodation for 1,700 passengers. She
was converted to a
troopship in 1940, and was used to transport the British
Expeditionary Force
to Norway following the German Invasion. On the 8th June
1940, she was sunk
300 miles West of Narvik, by the German High Seas Fleet
comprising
SCHARNHORST, GNEISENAU and ADMIRAL HIPPER. The Orama lost
19 killed and 280
taken prisoner, there were heavy losses on the other
allied ships also sunk,
the aircraft carrier HMS GLORIOUS, two destroyers H.M.S.
Ardent and H.M.S.
Acasta, the trawler "Juniper" and the oil tanker "Oil
Pioneer".
Picture of Orama 11, it looks like the photo I have used on AHOY.
Thanks to you I will correct the photo on AHOY.
Trust this helps.
Best wishes,
Mac.
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