A mother and daughter team: ORIANA and CANBERRA

For just over 2 years from April 1995 to September 1997 Southampon was once again home to P&O's  ORIANA and CANBERRA, for those who had cruised for many years with P&O the introduction of the new flagship brought back memories of the days when the previous ORIANA would regularly sail out of the port in tandom with CANBERRA.

 ORIANA and CANBERRA at Southampton Copyright: Stephen Matthews

Advertisment from the 1960's for SS ORIANA & CANBERRA

As a matter of course it was a different market both were serveing, the cruise market where liners such as CANBERRA had found a new purpose after the decline of the Liner route.
Over the course of those 2 years ORIANA and CANBERRA were seen togother several times and both at Southampton as well as other ports.
 Perhaps most poignantly during the last weeks of CANBERRA's career and final stay in Southampton.
As mentioned in our previous post during the CANBERRA's farewell cruise in Cannes

ORIANA with CANBERRA in Cannes

And after her last cruise while CANBERRA was being de-stored alongside the QE2 termianl ORIANA would on occasion would pass her 'mother' showing both were CANBERRA had inspired elements of her design such as the shpe of  her funnel and the visual balance of her upper decks.

An Historic Meeting in Cannes

On the 25th September 1997 ORIANA anchored with fleet mate and 'mother' CANBERRA at the French resort of Cannes unlike other occasions when the two had been seen together this was a symbolic and ceremonial meeting for CANBERRA was on the final leg of her Farewell Cruise and as such was handing over the honour of fastest ship in fleet to ORIANA.
This also meant handing over the famed Golden Cockerel which was proudly held by the fastest ship, CANBERRA had received the Cockerel from SS ORIANA in 1986 when was retired from service and now 11 years later CANBERRA herself was handing the trophy over.
To quote CANBERRA's log:
 "1705: A launch from the ORIANA and from the CANBERRA met amid a cacophony of sound and colour to exchange the famous P&O Cockerel which the CANBERRA has held for many years as the fastest ship in the fleet"

ORIANA and CANBERRA together

Seen fron the waterline

In the years since ORIANA has proved many times that she is a fitting holder of the title even passing 30 knots on occasion a feat her mother most certainly be proud of.

The Golden Cockerel proudly displayed on ORIANA's port bridge wing

An Epic voyage for a landmark year

Coinciding with the start of thr 180th Anniversary year of P&O's founding in January 2017 ORIANA is going to be undertaking an epic 50 night cruise Caribbean and Amazon Adventure which will take ORIANA from Southampton to The Azores, Bermuda, USA, The Caribbean Islands and some 1,450 Km inland up the Amazon River to the port of Manaus which lies at the heart of the Amazon Rainforest.

 ORIANA's itinerary for Jan/Feb 2017

This will be the first time since 2012 that ORIANA will undertake a cruise of such length with fleet mates AURORA and ARCADIA having handled the circumnavigation voyages since 2013 ORIANA having spent the winter months making transatlantic Caribbean cruises and Northern Europe 'Northern Lights cruises'

ORIANA docked in Ponta Delgada in the Azores, May 2012

More infomation on this cruise can be found at P&O's Website : http://www.pocruises.com/x701/?search=true&leadmeta=b

ORIANA's 'Rental solution'

 Maintaining ORIANA while she is in constant operation is not task to be taken lightly and it must feel like a never ending task from repainting her hull, replacing decking , maintaining her AC machinery and propulsion systems to keeping her interiors looking their best the crew's jobs around the ship are an on going process.
Many of these systems are virtually impossible to maintain while the ship is in active service and as a result can only be fully serviced while she is dry docked for refit.
One such system is ORIANA's emergency generators while not always in use they need to be ready to come online in the very unlikey event there is a power failure.
With ORIANA due for refit next year P&O have invested in novel solution that will allow the ship to continue operating at full efficency while also giving her crew tje ability to take various systems offline for maintance to keep them running until her refit,
On the 27th of May this year ORIANA had installed on the aft end of Deck 13 a 1250kVA  660-voltage  power generator by  Energyst CAT, a subsidiary of the Caterpillar Group oversaw the installation of the 
generator with 2 enginners sailing with the ship to ensure the every was completed satisfactorily.

The genertor being placed on board

As an interim solution this will allow the flexibility to maintain ORIANA's power plant and back up systems  without it impacting on her schedule.

Photos Copyright: Energyst CAT

A Model Subject

Like many great passenger ships including her 'mother' CANBERRA and namesake  ORIANA has found herself the subject of model makers often as shown below a one off large scale model which has a price to match the large size or as a much smaller scale and mass produced item availble to purchase on board.

The above model was listed on Ebay online auction site several years ago, and it's asking price reflected the size at around a £1000 ( 1,360 €)
 Smaller models are far more common although in this size occasionally a rarity will be for sale such as this pewter model more in the style of Costa Cruises or MSC it's asking price also much lower at £48 (65€)

At present the model shown below and produced in the late 1990's is currently for sale for £39(53€) and is on a scale of  1/1250

 Ceramic models of the ship have been availble to purchase on board for many years such as the two different ones below the first was avaible up until 2006/7
While the second was availble from 2008 onwards the examples below being from the collection of Madeira based ship enthusiast and collector Sergio Ferreira.

Since her 2011 refit ORIANA herself has also featured a large model of herself on board situated behind the bar of The Crow's Nest it replaces the large scale model of one P&O's R class ships which had been in place since her entry into service in April 1995.

Highley detailed the model could easily be an owner's or shipyard model.

There have also been interesting models made by private individuals such as this one which was shown in the May 1997 edition of Marine Modelling magazine.