Miscellaneous Ship Histories

Oruba (I)

 

Oruba (I) had a service life of 37 years and a rather unusual history. Built as a passenger liner, she was purchased by the Admiralty during WW1 and disguised as a Capital ship to mislead the Germans. After that she was scuttled to act as a breakwater during the Dardenelles campaign.

Service History

 

Oruba (I) was built for the Pacific Steam Navigation Co's Britain-to-Valparaiso service.

 

In 1890 she was transferred to the Orient Line service and sailed from London on 4th July 1890 for Melbourne and Sydney via Suez.

 

In Feb.1906 she was transferred to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co and continued on the Australia service until Oct 16th 1908 when she commenced her last sailing to Australia. Oruba (I) was the first vessel to use the newly opened Outer Harbour wharf at Port Adelaide. Before this had been built, when the weather was bad, passengers sometimes had to disembark at Semaphore by launch - boarding the launch using a bosun's chair.

 

Oruba (I) was later used on the service to Buenos Aires.

Image 1

Basic Data: Oruba (I)

Type: Passenger ship

Registered owners, managers and operators:

                 Pacific Steam Navigation Co.

Builders: Naval Construction and Armaments Co.

Yard: Barrow

Country: UK

Yard number: 1654

Registry: N/K

Official number: 96310

Signal letters: N/K

Call sign: N/K

Classification society: N/K

Gross tonnage: 5,857 tons

Net tonnage: 3,351 tons

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 131.1 Metres

Breadth: 15 Metres

Depth: 10.4 Metres

Draught: N/K

Engines: Single triple-expansion steam engine

Engine builders: Naval Construction and Armaments Co.

Works: Barrow

Country: UK

Boilers: N/K

Power: 1,030 hp, 7,000IHP

Propulsion: Single screw

Speed: 16.5 knots

Passenger capacity: 1st. Class: 126;

2nd Class: 120; 3rd Class 400

Crew: N/K

Image 1 is from an old postcard of Oruba (I)

Image 7

Image 6

Image 17

Images

 

1. Image #1 and #3 from the Webmaster’s postcard collection

2. Image #2 was provided to the Webmaster by an email correspondent who did not know the original source.

3. Images #4 to #6 and #8 to #15 are by courtesy of Angela Walters

4. Images #7 and #17 are cuttings from the New York Times

5. Image #16 is a cutting from an Austrian newspaper sent to the Webmaster - no further details are known.

Observations of a Solar Eclipse

 

The records of The Royal Society (Ext. Ref. #33) record that on 9 May 1900, Ralph Copeland, PhD, F.R.A.S, F.R.S.E. left Edinburgh for Santa Pola on the south-east coast of Spain on Oruba (I). Copeland later completed a report on his observations of the Total Solar Eclipse that took place there on 28 May. It seems that members of the expedition were dropped off by Oruba (I) at Gibraltar - presumably en route for Australia. The expedition leader included in his account his thanks to the managers of the Orient Steam Navigation Company for transporting the telescopes and other astronomical instruments without charge.

 

The Demon Drink

 

On May 25 1913, whilst on the South American service, there was a very unpleasant event on board involving a “drink-crazed” passenger called Lionel Cunningham as can be seen from the press report below.

Many of the passengers on Oruba (I) would have been emigrating to Australia or New Zealand but some would have been travelling as servants of the British Empire, or to follow their professional trades or other occupations.

 

The Walters Family

 

I am indebted to Angela Walters for the following information and photographs that she discovered during investigation of her ancestors.

 

Angela’s husband's grandparents and father sailed on Oruba (I) in 1893 whilst returning to England from New Zealand. The grandfather Wiliam Charles Flamstead Walters and his wife had gone there in the early 1880s where he had been a Classics master at Christchurch College, Christchurch but was dismissed despite his popularity. Angela says that there seems to have been a personal "delicate" reason behind this return and she may have more to say about this when her own research is published. Grandfather would later become Professor of Ancient History at King’s and Queen’s Colleges London.

Image 2

Image 2 is of fairly poor quality but is the only external photo of Oruba (I) that I have been able to locate to date.

Image 3 is another early postcard showing Oruba (I). Note the four masts and closeness of her funnels.

Image 3

Service in WW1

 

In late 1914, Winston Churchill - then 1st Lord of the Admiralty - came up with the idea of disguising merchant ships as capital ships to fool the Germans. Overall 14 vessels were converted by Harland and Wolff who fitted wooden additions to the superstructure, dummy guns and funnels etc. Unfortunately the Germans were not fooled and apparently the construction activities were reported in the New York Times.

 

Oruba (I) was purchased by the British Admiralty in 1914 and was modified to look like the super-dreadnaught battleship, HMS Orion. A photograph of Oruba (I) after this conversion is available for sale Here.

 

This conversion must have been an interesting challenge as HMS Orion was 177 Metres in length - some 36 metres longer than Oruba (I). Her beam measurement was 27 Metres compared with Oruba (I)’s 15 Metres - though that was probably less of an issue. 

 

Scuttling

 

In 1915 Oruba (I) was scuttled at Mudros (now Moudros) Harbour at Lemnos, Greece as a breakwater. Mudros had been taken over by the British to support the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign. No further information has been obtained about exactly why this was done but it is presumed that it was an attempt to improve the harbour facilities.

Image 17 is from the New York Times on 5 June 1913.

Image 4 was taken, according to Angela, during a “Crossing the line” ceremony. This custom started in the Royal Navy but was later adopted on passenger ships for entertainment.  The lady on the left is known only as Mrs. Weir. The lady on the right is Mrs. Ethel Mary Aileen Walters, née Skyring.

Image 4

Image 5 was taken during the same event. Mrs. Weir is holding a rope on her lap to the left of the lifebelt,

Master Rupert Cavendish Skyring Walters is seated to the right of the lifebelt wearing the Captain's hat/cap and next to him wearing the Union flag as a skirt is his mother, Mrs. Ethel Mary Aileen Walters (née Skyring). The names of others in the group are not known.

 

· Rupert Cavendish Skyring Walters, B.Sc., M.Inst.C.E., M.Inst.W.E., F.G.S. was born at Christchurch, New Zealand on 21 July 1888. He became a Water Engineer and died in Gerrards Cross, England on 19 February 1980

· Mrs. Ethel Mary Aileen Walters, née Skyring, was born in Scotland on 22 May 1863 and acted for Ben Greet's Company using the name "Sarah Sarsden". She was the daughter of Major General Francis Skyring, Royal Engineers (1814-1868) and wife of William Charles Flamstead Walters, M.A., Professor of  Classical Lit. K.C.L. & of Classics & Ancient History Q.C.L. (1859-1927). She died at Eastbourne on 22 October 1902,

Image 5

On further examination of these photographs I have reached the conclusion that they probably show some kind of on-board entertainment rather than a “Crossing the Line” ceremony  as there is no evidence of King Neptune. I would also expect to see nets, tridents, seaweed and other such paraphernalia and maybe people getting wet. It was usual to stage various forms of entertainment during long voyages and passengers would join in the fun. I am no expert on this, but it appears to me that there are two minstrels, a Pierrot (the person in the rather odd pose and a white costume at the back), a chinaman and maybe Mrs Ethel Walters is dressed as Britannia. I have no idea what the others are supposed to represent. Goodness knows why they all look so miserable!

Image 6 is one of the items from Mrs. Ethel Walter’s autograph book - a Christmas greeting with a picture of a ship in heavy seas. June 1893 - “in the monsoon”.

Ex-Archduke Leopold of Tuscany

 

This must have been a most interesting voyage for the Walters family as on board, and to some extent incognito, was Leopold Wölfling,  ex-Archduke Leopold of Tuscany, (2 December 1868 to 4 July 1935). He was in disgrace and bound for Naples.

 

His disgrace resulted from an incident that had occurred on the Austrian Naval ship Elisabeth. Leopold had struck none other than Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Josef von Habsburg-Lothringen, the heir to the Habsburg Monarchy. It seems that there was a quarrel between these two men on the bridge during which Leopold had hit Franz in the face, in front of other crew members, and caused his nose to bleed - an unforgivable insult to the Royal personage. Franz would later become the Emperor Franz Joseph whose assassination led inexorably to the start of WW1.

 

Drunk and in the wrong as Franz may have been, Leopold’s action led inevitably to the end of his social status. If we accept Leopold’s account, Franz Joseph (or F.F. as Leopold referred to him), was vindictive and arranged the termination of his Naval career and social ruination. Leopold renounced his title of Archduke of Tuscany.

 

Disembarking Elisabeth at Sydney, Leopold left Adelaide on Oruba (I) on a passage to Naples. The end of his royal life was rapidly approaching and in his book “My Life Story: From Archduke to Grocer”,

(Ext. Ref. #34) he recounts his subsequent life making a living peddling strings of Wienerwurst on the sidewalks of Vienna, selling life insurance, and finally keeping a grocery store. He drew an interesting contrast between his own career and that of Sir Thomas Lipton, saying “while he shot up the social ladder, I shot down”. I would very much liked to have met Leopold. (See Postscript below.)

 

In his book, Leopold says that he travelled “strictly incognito” but he obviously revealed himself to at least some of those on board. He describes his time on Oruba (I) in these terms:

 

The fact that I travelled strictly incognito enabled me to mix with the rest of the ship’s passengers as one of themselves and how I revelled in the change! Freed from the obligation of having to follow the conventional mode of conduct, expected of a Royal Archduke travelling abroad, I joined in all the usual fun of such voyages, from deck quoits and billiards to flirting with pretty girls. That I should indulge freely in the latter diversion was, of course, only natural for  a youth of my age. But even had I been as old as I am today, I would probably have made just the same silly ass of myself. The sea has the power of stirring sex-feeling in even the most orderly and sedate. Throw men and women together aboard a ship and no matter what their age nor how prim and proper they may have been in the past - as to just what may happen, you can never tell. As likely or not, a missionary will be caught kissing a ballet dancer. Why, even on this particular trip on the Oruba, an elderly millionaires who had hitherto been the soul of discretion, confessed to me secretly that she had become enamoured of a cabin-boy!

He apparently wrote his memoirs because he was close to bankruptcy and needed the money. I hope he did well from it; there are plenty of copies of the book available on the second hand market so it must have sold quite well.

 

His interest in pretty girls is evidenced by the follow press cutting.

Image 7 is a cutting from the New York Times of 26 July 1903 and reports the marriage of the ex-Archduke to a dancer.

Leopold became friendly with the Walters party and, during the long voyage, constructed a “fourhander chess board” which is still in the possession of the Walters family. It has his secret mark “H.I. & R.H.” (His Imperial & Royal Highness) on one of the sides. Angela Walters has a letter from him dated 4 July 1894 in which he says the he intended to have such a chess board made up but it is not known whether he did so.

Image 8

Image 8 is photo of Ex-Archduke Leopold as a young naval officer before his fall from grace.

Image 9

Image 9 is from a Walters photo album. Ex-Archduke Leopold is believed to be one of the two European men standing at the rear.

Image 10

Image 10 shows Leopold’s chessboard.

Image 11 from the chessboard shows an inscribed quotation that had been given to Leopold by Wiliam Charles Flamstead Walters and was presumably considered appropriate to Leopold’s situation. It is

a Latin tag from the 12th Century writer and theologian Walter of Châtillon “Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim” - “Wanting to avoid Charybdis, he runs into Scylla”. This was itself a reference to Homer’s Odyssey in which the hero, while rowing through a narrow channel, is threatened by the monsters Charybdis on one side, and Scylla on the other. A modern equivalent would be “between a rock and a hard place”. There is also the date - 23rd June 1893 - in Roman numerals.

Image 11

Image 12 is also from the chessboard and shows Leopold’s “H.I. & R.H” marking.

Image 12

Angela Walters kindly provided two more images from this voyage that are described below.

Image 13 is a sketch by Ethel Mary Aileen Walters made on Oruba (I) whilst approaching Gibraltar. Her father Captain Charles Francis Skyring was resident Army engineer at the Gibraltar garrison and his father Major George Skyring, R.A. had died on Gibraltar. His oldest brother was Assistant Surveyor Lt William George Henry Skyring (born 1797) who was on H.M.S. "Beagle" surveying South America; he later commanded H.M.S. Aetna and was surveying the coast of west Africa but on the 23rd of December 1833 he was murdered by natives on Cape Roxo and his body rescued and buried at sea. Family verbal embroidered history told he had "been eaten by cannibals".

Image 13

Image 14 is a painting on a leaf - presumably also by Ethel Mary Aileen Walters and made on the same voyage. Sadly it is damaged but it is remarkable that it has survived at all. The background is thought to be Capetown. The ship depicted is not known but it does not resemble Oruba (I) - other than the closeness of the two funnels. This could be artistic licence or simply just depicting another ship seen at this time.

Image 14

Postscript about Ex-Archduke Leopold

 

Angela Walters sent me a copy of a letter to Mr Walters sent by Leopold regarding the chessboard which is reproduced below.

 

A post-war photo of Leopold outside his short-lived grocery business has also come to light.

Image 15 is the letter from Leopold to Mr Walters dated 4 July 1894 in which he says he ordered the chess board - but does not say whether he had actually taken delivery of it.

Image 15

Image 16 shows Ex-Archduke Leopold outside his grocery shop in Vienna taken around 1920.

Image 16