Oriana (II)
Oriana, the second P&O ship with this name, floated out Jos L. Meyers Yard in Papenburg, Germany at the 30th of june 1994. Her yard-number was 636. She flies the British flag and her homeport is London. She is 269 meters long, 32,24 meters wide and her draft is 7,90 meters. With her tonnage of 69.153 she can easily accomodate 2108 passengers and 760 crew, who enjoy ten decks of amusement. She steams at 24 knots, making her fast, and Berlitz gave her a ****+ degree.
Oriana was a star already when she wasn't even wet. A filmcrew from Discovery Channel watched her take shape from the early beginnings and made a 3-hour documentary about the building of the ship. In spite that the name Aurora of her 2000-built near sistership indicates a new beginning for P&O Cruises, Oriana really started this. The P&O fleet was in fact only Canberra (1960) and Victoria (1965) when Oriana sailed her first voyage in april 1995. Oriana had to be a true British flagship, be sort of a P&O-version of Queen Elizabeth 2. A nice fact to tell about the design of Oriana is the reason why her bridge-wings are not enclosed by glass. Originally, it was planned to have Oriana built with enclosed wings, but because her first captain, Ian Gibb, told P&O that 'a captain should be able to feel the wind on his face' the wings were kept open.
Oriana is a true nineties-ship in looks and in size. But a lot of people call her an ocean liner instead of a cruiseship and most shiplovers say she has an 'old feeling' about her. Maybe she has, with her teak-decks and high tea and traditional British style she is unique. But in 1995 she was state of the art, controlled by a joystick wich the captain calls the lipstick because of her manifacturer Lips.
Queen Elizabeth II named the ship in Southampton in april 1995, a few days before the ship set sail for the Canaries on the 9th day of that month. Almost directly she was classic and especially the British and European people loved the ship. Her first entry in Sydney Harbour was amazing as hundreds of people saw her arrive in liner-style.
At the 25th of september 1997, she met Canberra at Cannes while the older ship was sailing her last commercial voyage. In a special ceremony, the 'Golden Cockerel', a large metal silhouette of a cockerel on a pole, was handed over from Canberra to Oriana. This cockerel is a symbol that is traditionally carried by the fastest ship in the fleet. The ceremony was witnessed by passengers on both ships and a special song that was written for Canberra was sung by Gerard Kenny.
What makes her so special? Maybe her elegance, her grandeur. But in fact she is a cruiseship, not a liner. She looks like a cruiseship, in general. Not like a liner. But something in her looks and her atmosphere makes her a great ship. And she is great for several people too, because she was involved in at least two rescue-operations at sea in Ile de France-style. In 2000 she rescued 9 people from a sinking Turkish freighter and a year later she saved three people from a Swedish yaught.
Some little misfortune struck her, when she met up with a giant freakwave off the Irish coast in september 2000. Six cabins were smashed and several people injured. A year earlier two cruises had to be cancelled because of engine-problems.
Oriana is now a classic modern cruiseliner, admired and loved by most shipping enthousiasts. She is a true link between the old and the new ships, giving her passengers best of both.
