History in the Making revised -- Part 2 - Construction I

A Dream Starts in Germany

On the 20th January 1992 P&O officially announced that it had a month previously signed a contract for the construction of its new liner with Meyer Werft, while the ship entered its final design stages P&O assembled a team people to work on certain aspects of the project headed by project leader Jim Hunter they comprised of the new ships Chief engineer designate Marcus James, Purser Chris Bullen, specialist theatre designer John Wyckham and alongside them numerous other people from shipboard departments and P&O’s operations and marketing departments.
While that team began its work P&O began other preparations into the ships construction and assembled another team to work more closely with the shipyard, these included site manager Peter Bonham who would be on site with his team of inspectors to make sure the work met with P&O’s high standards.
P&O had already chosen the ships master, Captain Ian Gibb  who later be appointed Commodore was in preparation for the new role as ORIANA's first commander and was assigned to the recently completed Princess ships CROWN PRINCESS & REGAL PRINCESS being of similar tonnage to the new ship the experience would prepare him for his new role.
Speaking about his time leading up to ORIANA's introduction to service he said,
"I spent some time with Princess on board one of their ships, I don’t recall which, to gain experience on board a larger ship and with the newer systems there and I also went out with the pilot to QE2 in Southampton to observe her being brought in."
He and future Chief Officer Hamish Reid would also spend some time during the construction at the Meyer Werft yard as Ian Gibb recalls their different experiences in Germany.
"I actually lived in Germany for a time during the construction as did Hamish Reid my Chief Officer so we were on site a majority of the time, Hamish had travelled out before I did and was living with a German family and his German improved greatly, I was stayed in a hotel so mine didn’t."
  Meanwhile to ensure the final designs were what was required two models of the ship, one 3 metres in length and the other 8 metres, these were taken to Trondheim, Norway for testing in one of the largest testing tanks in Europe, with further tests being performed on the aerodynamics of the designs gas emissions and the proposed anchor in Vienna.
10 months after the contract was signed and all design work almost complete on the 4th October 1992 the first steel was delivered to Meyer Werft where it underwent numerous inspections by Bonham and his team he explained “P&O is a very demanding client which wants first-class ships built”.“Classification societies such of Lloyds are employed by the shipyards but I and my inspectors are independent, there at the request of the client.”
Although it had some experience of modern shipbuilding with its subsidiary Princess P&O had not ordered a new ship for its UK service since 1956 when the order for CANBERRA had been placed with Harland & Wolff, in the years since then shipbuilding techniques had radically changed.
When the previous ORIANA and CANBERRA were built although being of very different design the basic construction of the two ships was the same, the majority of the hull being built in the traditional manner of steel riveted hull plates with larger welded aluminium superstructure.
The new ship would be built using newer prefabrication methods in Meyer Werft’s enclosed building dock as ship number 636.

Building dock 1 © Meyer Werft

While the preparations at Meyer Werft were almost complete there was one vital area which had so far received little attention: the engines.
For this they looked to MAN B&W in Augsburg, who using a state of the art computer system calculated the best engine system for the ship.
It suggested a so called father and son arrangement of 4 medium speed diesel producing 39,750kW at 428rpm to supply the propulsive power, with a further four auxiliary engines developing 4,420kW to supply the mains electricity for the ships A/C machinery and hotel services.

Construction begins

 As the sun rose on the 11th March 1993 it did so on the first day ORIANA’s official existence, later that day a group of around 100 people gathered on the floor of the building dock before them stood the first block of 636.

The keel is laid

Keeping with tradition P&O’s Tim Harris placed a 1 pence coin onto the keel and Meyer Werft Bernard Meyer, Chief executive officer placed a 1 Pfennig coin.

P&O's Commodore John King and Managing Director Gwyn Hughs with a Travel Agent rep

Both giving speeches Harris took the opportunity to officially announce the name of 636, ORIANA.
He concluded by saying “ ORIANA will lead in terms of design, elegance and passenger comfort” and that “She’ll epitomise everything that is best about Britain”.
As the assembled guests prepared to head off for celebration lunch a brass band also in the dock played for the occasion playing both Deutschlandlied and God Save the Queen as well as big band music.

 ORIANA's designers share a light moment

 With the guests leaving the dock to celebrate the next block of ORIANA was lowered into place slowly at first but surely the great ship began to grow. 

ORIANA begins to grow

With the name now know by the public reaction was varied especially among the fans of the previous ORIANA, to some it was great news a new ORIANA to sail the oceans of the world to continue the legacy of her predecessor while to others they felt that the new ship no matter how well built would not be able to live up the previous one's reputation.
With the construction underway P&O began to publish publicity material including sending existing passengers booklets regularly covering the design and what passengers could expect when the ship was completed more infomation on these can be found here
It was also at this time with computer generated images that the public could see what the completed ORIANA would look like.

Computer image of ORIANA © P&O Cruises

Once construction began the pace quickened, by May 1993 2,000 tonnes of steel was in place, by July 4,036 tonnes ; by November 7,762.

11 months after construction had began 10,845 tonnes of steel had been erected roughly 68% of the total steel used for the ship.
Soon ORIANA would take on a shape that would come to be identifiable and loved worldwide.