SS Calgaric
{{Short description|1917 steam ocean liner}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = SS Calgaric.jpg | Ship caption = The Calgaric in port }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = no | Ship country = United Kingdom | Ship flag = {{Shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} | Ship name = *1917: Orca
| Ship namesake = *1917: orca
| Ship owner = *1918: Pacific SN Line
| Ship operator = *1918: Pacific SN Co
| Ship registry = London | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Harland and Wolff, Belfast | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = 442 | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 5 April 1917 | Ship completed = 1917 | Ship acquired = 25 May 1918 | Ship maiden voyage = *as an ocean liner:
| Ship refit = 1922, 1927 | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship identification = *UK official number 140579
| Ship fate = Scrapped 1934 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship type = *1918: cargo ship
| Ship tonnage = *{{GRT|16,063}}
| Ship length = {{cvt|550.3|ft|1|abbr=on}} | Ship beam = {{cvt|67.3|ft|1|abbr=on}} | Ship height = | Ship draught = {{convert|35|ft|8+1/2|in|1|abbr=on}} | Ship depth = {{cvt|43.0|ft|1|abbr=on}} | Ship decks = 2 | Ship ice class = | Ship power = 11,900 ihp | Ship propulsion = *3 × screws
| Ship speed = {{convert|15|kn|km/h|0|lk=in}} | Ship capacity = *1922 refit: 190 1st class, 220 2nd class, 480 3rd class
| Ship crew = | Ship notes = sister ships: {{SS|Orduña | 2}}, {{SS|Orbita | 2}}
}} |
SS Calgaric was a steam ocean liner that was completed in 1917, assumed service in 1918 and scrapped in 1934. She was built for the Pacific SN Co Line as Orca. In 1923 she was transferred to the Royal Mail Line. In 1927 she was transferred to White Star Line and renamed Calgaric.
Orca was the third of three sister ships built for Pacific Steam. The first was {{SS|Orduña||2}}, launched in 1913, and the second was {{SS|Orbita||2}}, launched in 1914.
Building
Harland & Wolff built Orca at Belfast during the First World War. She was yard number 442, built on slipway number 7. She was launched on 5 April 1917 and delivered to Pacific Steam on 25 May 1918.{{cite web |url= http://www.theyard.info/ships/ships.asp?entryid=442 |title=Orca |work=Harland and Wolff Shipbuilding & Engineering Works |access-date=6 May 2022}}
Orca had the same dimensions and engines as Orduña and Orbita. Her registered length was {{cvt|550.3|ft|1|abbr=on}}, her beam was {{cvt|67.3|ft|1|abbr=on}} and her depth was {{cvt|43.0|ft|1|abbr=on}}. She also had the same propulsion system. She had three screws and a propulsion system called "combination machinery". Her port and starboard screws were each powered by a four-cylinder triple expansion engine. Exhaust steam from this pair of reciprocating engines drove a low-pressure turbine, which powered her middle screw. Between them the three engines developed a total of 11,900 ihp{{cite web |url= http://shippingandshipbuilding.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=203468 |title=Orca |work=British and Irish Shipyards |publisher=Shipping and Shipbuilding Research Trust |access-date=6 May 2022}} and gave Orca a speed of {{convert|15|kn|km/h|0|lk=in}}.{{sfn|Harnack|1930|p=463}}
Pacific Steam Navigation Company
File:SSA Orca gun 1919 AWM J02911.jpeg mounted on Orca{{'}}s deck, when she was en route to Australia in March 1919]]
Orca was planned as an ocean liner for Pacific Steam's passenger service between Britain and the west coast of South America.{{sfn|Harnack|1930|p=463}} However, for war service the Shipping Controller had her completed as a cargo ship, without her passenger superstructure.
Pacific Steam registered her in Liverpool. Her official number was 140579 and her code letters were JTLW.{{cite book |year=1930 |chapter=Steamers & Motorships |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |volume=II |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |via=Southampton City Council |url= https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/30/30b0200.pdf |access-date=6 May 2022}}
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
File:StateLibQld 1 146947 Orca (ship).jpg
In 1921 Orca returned to Harland & Wolff for her passenger superstructure to be added. She was given berths for 890 passengers: 190 first class, 220 second class and 480 third class. Her public rooms included an entrance hall and First Class lounge decorated in Louis XVI style, a First Class dining room in early Georgian style, and a Smoking Room in Elizabethan style, complete with fireplace. To ascend or descend between decks, passengers had a choice of electric elevators, or a staircase lit by a domed skylight.{{sfn|Nicol|2001|pp=207–208}}
By the time the refit had been completed at the end of 1922, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co had full control of Pacific Steam, and Orca and her two sisters were transferred to the RMSP fleet.{{sfn|Wilson|1956|p=89}} She finally started her passenger maiden voyage, on 3 January 1923, sailing from Southampton via Hamburg to New York. Thence until March 1923 she operated two "off-season" cruises the Caribbean before reverting to liner service. A few years later, RMSP used Orca for the company's first "Great African Cruise".{{sfn|Nicol|2001|pp=208–209}}
White Star Line
In 1926 RMSP took over White Star Line, and Orca was one of several RMSP ships transferred to the White Star fleet. She was refitted again, second class was renamed "tourist class", and her accommodation was increased to a total of 1,170 passengers: 290 first class, 550 tourist class and 330 third class. White Star ran services to Canada, so Orca was renamed Calgaric after the city of Calgary in Alberta.
On 4 May 1927 she started her first voyage for White Star, sailing from Liverpool to the east coast of Canada. She continued to do a lot of cruising as well as her liner work. In 1929 White Star transferred her from its Liverpool – Canada service to its London – Canada service.
The Great Depression that started in 1929 caused a Global slump in shipping. Calgaric was laid up from 1930 until 1933.
=1933 voyages=
In June 1933 Calgaric returned to service for a single transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Montreal. Thereafter she made a few cruises.
The Scout Association chartered Calgaric to take scoutmasters and Guide mistresses on a Baltic cruise in August 1933.{{Cite web |url= http://www.spanglefish.com/calgaric |title=The Cruise of the Calgaric 12–29 August, 1933}}{{Cite web |url= http://www.pinetreeweb.com/calgaric.htm |title=The Pine Tree Web}} Passengers included the Baden-Powell family, about 100 Scoutmasters, 475 Guide mistresses, and 80 non-Scouts and Guides – presumably their spouses. There were 85 men and 570 women – some of the Wolf Cub Akelas were women.{{Cite web |url= http://scoutguidehistoricalsociety.com/calgaric.htm |last=Walker |first=Colin |title=A badge, a mystery and 'The Voyage of The Calgaric' |work=Scouting Milestones |date=June 2007}}
The cruise began from Southampton on Saturday 12 August and ended at Liverpool on 29 August.{{Cite web |url= http://www.titanic-titanic.com/calgaric.shtml |last=Dane |first=Kane |title=Calgaric |work=Titanic |date=3 July 2019}} Her itinerary was Rotterdam, the Kiel Canal, Gdynia, Klaipėda, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, the Pentland Firth and Oban.Abstracted from the Journal kept by Betty Clay, the younger Baden-Powell daughter, then aged 16.
Fate
In 1934 Calgaric was assigned the new four-letter wireless telegraph call sign GLTR to replace her former code letters.{{cite book |year=1934 |chapter=Steamers & Motorships |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |volume=II |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |via=Southampton City Council |url= https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/34/34b0151.pdf |access-date=6 May 2022}} On 10 May Cunard Line took over the ailing White Star to form Cunard-White Star Line. By then Calgaric had been laid up again. She was sold for scrap, and on Christmas Day 1934 she arrived at Rosyth in Scotland for Metal Industries, Limited to break her up.
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book |last=Harnack |first=Edwin P |origyear=1903 |year=1930 |title=All About Ships & Shipping |place=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |edition=4th}}
- {{cite book |last=Nicol |first=Stuart |year=2001 |title=MacQueen's Legacy; A History of the Royal Mail Line |volume=One |place=Brimscombe Port and Charleston, SC |publisher=Tempus Publishing |isbn=0-7524-2118-2}}
- {{cite book |last=Wilson |first=RM |year=1956 |title=The Big Ships |place=London |publisher=Cassell & Co}}
{{White Star Line ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calgaric}}
Category:Passenger ships of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships built in Belfast
Category:Ships built by Harland and Wolff
Category:Ships of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company
Category:Ships of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company