Celebrating ORIANA - A lady on trials

In late March 1995, fresh from her builders ORIANA headed out to sea for the first time to undertake her sea trials.
Heading out into the North Sea ORIANA's sea keeping abilities were immediately put to the test as she sailed into a force 10 gale which would prove the effectivness of the world's largest stabilisers.
Still techninally a Meyer Werft's porperty and under the commnad of the yard's Captain one by one  the ships technical systems were 'put through their paces'
For the first time her engines controls were set to Full ahead and as the engines came up to speed she reached her cruising speed of 24 knots, next she quickly surpassed her maximum service speed of 25 knots and then onwards she passed 26 knots until she reached 27.7 knots far higher than her projected maximum speeds and impressive for a first run.       
In the years to come ORIANA would acheive higher speeds of up to 30 knots

ORIANA on her trials

During the trials ORIANA was also to make a brief detour to Hamburg for one last drydocking and inspection of the hull before her trip to

It was during the trials that an issue was found with the ship's propellers it was discovered that at higher speeds they produced servre vibration in the stern.
As Commodore Gibb recalled "the vibrations were a major problem the decibels that were being produced in the aft end were truly awful in the aft (Oriental) Restaurant crockery and cutlery was vibrating off of tables, after further trials we found the vibration was caused by the propellers at high speed and for a while it was not even certain we would accept the ship but we were assured the problem could be remedied by having the propellers replaced and in the short term by operating at slower speeds around 22 to 24 knots so we could control the situation."
 With the trials complete and the ship's equipment signed off ORIANA headed for her first engagement, her hand over to P&O.