History in the Making revised--Part 3-Delivery and Christening

Crossing Emshaven

By February 1995 two months ahead of ORIANAs maiden cruise she was ready to make her way from Papenburg to the North sea and ultimately sea trials to prove the technical systems.
This journey would take the ship 40kms to Emden where she would remain overnight before heading out for ten days of sea trails,
Due to the tide in the Ems ORIANA would make a stop at the town of Leer for several hours to allow for the tide to rise the water level high enough for the ship to continue the first albeit short trip down river to Emden.

Map showing ORIANA's route to Emden

Her lifeboats and tenders which had not been in place for long were once again lowered from their handling gear in preperation for the ORIANA's first voyage and would follow ORIANA down river.
As Commodore Gibb recalls "We also had the lifeboats lowered and they followed our progress down the river like ducklings following their mother. It was quite a sight to behold as it seemed much of the time from the moment we left Papenburg locals came out to watch ORIANA pass by I think it must have been tens of thousands people"
  In the morning with the Dutch registered tug WATERMAN in attendance ORIANA or for official purposes still ship 636 began her first journey with over 2,000 local residents from Papenburg including shipyard employees and their families to watch the ships departure, a sight ORIANA and her crew would witness many times over the coming months.
Although Commodore Gibb was on board he would be acting as an observer, for the time being ORIANA was officially the charge of the shipyard captain since at this time the ship was still the property of Meyer Werft, the handover of ORIANA would only be completed once the sea trials had concluded and P&O confirmed that the ship met with their requirements.
In theory it would be possible for P&O to refuse delivery of ORIANA if for example the ship was unable to develop the speed which had been set down in the contract .

ORIANA departs from Papenburg.

Slowly with the tug ready to assist the ship edged slowly out of the dock entrance firstly passing through a raised bridge.
An extremely, delicate and tight manoeuvre with less than a metre of water beneath the hull and barely a metre between the bridge and the ships sides ORIANA squeezed though, with the slightest breath of wind the ship could have been pushed into the bridge.
The bridge behind them ORIANA moved slowly onward attracting many people from both the German and Dutch border to watch this latest masterpiece in its natural element.
All seemingly going well a slight incident occurred when the ship temporarily grounded, with apparent damage and no possibility at the time of retuning to the builders the ship headed on the decision being made that a examination would be made at another yard once the journey was completed.
" Unbeknownst to us at the time we had struck bottom momentarily during passage, We only discovered that the ship had grounded when we entered dry dock for a regular inspection no damage had been sustained only small area of paint had been removed."

 Arriving at Leer in the afternoon to dock and wait for the tide to raise to a high enough level for the journey to continue, ORIANA looked resplendent with her gleaming white hull looming over the small town and like at her departure form Papenburg the great ship drew the crowds to look at her.

By the time the tide was high enough for ORIANA to continue on her way the light was fading fast and the next leg of the journey would continue by night.
With her lights and funnel fully illuminated ORIANA once again set out on route to Emden making as impressive sight by night as she did by day.
The most unique image that can be seen with a delivery trip from Meyer Werft is of a ship crossing over rather than under a bridge,
Occurring on the Ems Tunnel which allows for the A31 motorway to pass under the Ems.

Nearing her final destination of the day ORIANA slowly slipped into dock later that night where once runited with her lifeboats she would remain until the morning.
With only the slightest of problems ORIANA’s first ever journey had been handled well.
The next morning ORIANA left Emden as had been planned but unlike the original intentions ORIANA headed to the renown shipyard of Blohm & Voss for a inspection as a result of the grounding the day before.
After a brief stay in order to perform a extensive inspection for damage to the hull ORIANA departed the Hamburg yard for the North Sea for her 10 days of sea trials.

On route from Hamburg 

Soon enough P&O would know if the millions they invested in ORIANA had been worth it.

For Meyer Werft they had build the largest and most prestigious ship built in Germany for 80 years and with ORIANA's departure had created quite a spectacle it could be said that for the yard she was the first of many large ships that would bring fame to the Papenburg yard including her near sister AURORA just over 5 years later.

Photos Copyright P&O Cruises , Meyer Werft and Oliver Asmussen.