ORIANA of 1995: History in the Making Revised -- Part 3 -Delivery and Christening III

“I name this ship ORIANA.”

With ORIANA completed and delivered to P&O, all that remained was to deliver the ship to her home port of Southampton where in a spectacular and fitting ceremony she would be named by Queen Elizabeth II. For P&O this had been a long held dream of having the reigning monarch name their flagship, although the company had many royal connections , it had the distinction of being the only British shipping company to have been founded officially by Royal Charter from Queen Victoria in 1837, it also had been given permission by the royal houses of Spain and Portugal to use the colours of their flags.
It had been initially planned that Her Majesty was to name CANBERRA at her launch in March 1960 but this was changed with the birth of Prince Andrew in February the same year.
While preparations were underway in Southampton ORIANA with her crew for the first time in charge of her, bid goodbye to land of her birth and to Emshaven as the ship headed out into the North Sea this time to take southerly course through the English Channel on route to her new home. Due to the heavy sea conditions that ORIANA had encountered during her sea trials which had resulted to in a rescheduling of some of the trials, this meant that her departure was later than had first been anticipated.

Commodore Gibb on the bridge.

For Commodore Gibb and his crew the moment they had waited months for had come ORIANA was finally bound for her home port under their command.
Being only a short journey ORIANA was expected to arrive the next day, for the remainder of the day and night ORIANA navigated through the English channel passing the east coast of the British mainland to starboard and the Dutch/Belgian coast to port. Onboard were a few shipyard workers who had a few final fittings to complete and check, also the ship's first photographers preparing their onboard shop and photo printing room.
While elsewhere on board the ship's crew were preparing for the first visitors and passengers she would receive in the upcoming weeks and months from the restaurants where the waiters were preparing with last minute cleaning and fine tuning their service to the Theatre Royle where ORIANA's very own theatre company were polishing their performances the story throughout the ship was the same ORIANA was ready to meet her public for the first time.
During the early hours of the morning ORIANA slowed as she approached the Nab Tower Lighthouse in the Dover Straits marking entry into the Solent. Embarking the pilot for the first time ORIANA continued slowly ahead, as day broke curious spectators watched as at first light the ship continued to make her way up river towards Southampton. As is tradition when a new ship arrives in Southampton local people, ship enthusiasts and photographers took yachts and small boats out to greet and escort the ship into dock while at her bow tugs gave a traditional water hose welcome. For the first time many of P&O’s and CANBERRA’s loyal fans were able to view her in person as the historic port welcomed the worlds newest and finest passenger liner.

On an overcast Southampton morning ORIANA arrives.

Along with the officers and harbour pilot Lord Sterling was also to be found on the starboard bridge wing being interviewed he summed up the general feeling on board.

Due to the ship arriving later than was planned the next three days up until the naming would be a busy period of last minute preparations and arranged visits and over the next five days would have a heavy schedule of events going on onboard which would see 10,000 visitors enjoy ORIANA’s hospitality. As was expected ORIANA attracted much media attention including interviews with members of P&O’s management and the ships crew among them Commodore Gibb, Speaking of his anticipation of the maiden cruise he said “ Funchal in Madeira is one of our favourite ports of call, there’ll be a great welcome, with a half a bottle of Madeira wine for every passenger and corsages of local flowers- and the weather is almost always sunny too.”
However before the maiden cruise there was the important matter of the naming ceremony which was set for the 6th April an event like no other the naming is always ranked as one of the most memorable in the life of a ship and P&O certainly wanted ORIANA’s to as special as possible.
For those who had been lucky enough to stay onboard over night and those arriving early the day started with a classical music presentation which was held in the Crows Nest bar followed by recitals in the Pacific Lounge. Afterwards they joined the later arrivals on the dockside where they took their seats on the specially installed seating which had been set up next ORIANA for the occasion. All being seated by 11am the guests were honoured by musical entertainment supplied by the Band of HM Royal Marines until Her Majesty arrived. From behind as the band played, the Royal Train from London could be heard pulling into the station. With cameras filming to broadcast the occasion to the world and The Choir of Westminster Abby singing Fair Oriana, Beauty’s Queen, Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Philip The Duke of Edinburgh took their places on the podium in front of ORIANA and on ORIANA's promenade deck he officers lined the rail watching the gathering below
Before the ceremony began and as is always the case when Her Majesty is present the choir of Westminster Abbey led the singing of the National Anthem and the introduction were made by the Master of Ceremonies, then followed the playing of Fanfare to ORIANA a piece of music which had been composed by the famed composer Benjamin Britten for the launch of the previous ORIANA. After the music finished speeches were made by the chairman of Associated British Ports and Lord Sterling, concluding with the ship being blessed with holy water by the Bishop of Basingstoke. With Commodore Gibb and Lord Sterling looking on Her Majesty made short speech before saying the words that in the English language are so associated with ship naming ceremonies -“ I name this ship ORIANA, may god bless her and all who sail in her.” she pulled the leaver sending the bottle champagne smashing against the “I” in the ships name as ORIANA’s horn blew enthusiastically much to the excitement of the crowd many of whom admitted later of having a tear in their eyes.

After the naming its self Her Majesty went onboard ORIANA to dine and for a tour of the ship and lunch on board as did many other guests. Including many areas the paying public would never see including the navigational bridge.

Her Majesty is shown the ships plaque.

On the bridge.

While touring the ship Her Majesty showed a particular interest to the Children's and Teenagers areas where she met a young Girl named Oriana who had wanted to meet her.
Recalling the tour Ian Gibb felt it was a success and in particular related two stories he had of it
"I think she was impressed with the ship, she certainly appeared to be. There are two memories in particular I have while touring the ship, the first was while she looking round the Spa & Fitness areas she joked while observing the Exercise Machines that “we have these in the dungeon at Windsor Castle!” and sometime later while touring the ship's Galley the executive Purser had selected 10 or 11 members of the restaurant crew to introduce to her to and as it turned out they all had the surname of Gomez so I was walking down the line introducing each saying “This is Mr Gomez and this is Mr Gomez and this is Mr Gomez as well”
To complete what had been a perfect day as night fell a full pyrotechnic display was arranged by P&O to celebrate in the grandest possible way the arrival of ORIANA- Queen of Seas.

Celebration fireworks.

And so the first chapter of ORIANA’s story came to a spectacular end ORIANA had gone from concept -Gemini, to a solid reality speaking of the relevance of the new ship John McNeece said "She will be the benchmark by which all others will be measured", in 3 days she would depart on her Maiden Voyage and Madeira where a warm welcome awaited for her first landfall.