On a mid-autumn day in October 1902, thirty-year-old Lizzie Whitehead sailed from England to meet her fiance, George Harry Siswick, who was halfway around the world, in Aotearoa New Zealand.
It was the maiden voyage of R.M.S. Orontes, the Orient Line’s newest and largest ship completed by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan.
Orient Line to Australia SS ORONTES Twin Screw 9,023 Tons by Charles Dixon, 1907
“She is a twin-screw steamer, holding the position of the longest British mail steamer on the southern colonial line. Certainly she answers expectations on inspection, for her appointments, from the bridge above to the spacious engine rooms and their appurtenances below, are in accordance with the latest ideas. The passenger accommodation is superb, and the cargo capacity is in keeping with the vigorous ideas of modern enterprise. The gross tonnage is 9,000, displacement at the loadline 15,450 tons, length over all 530 ft., breadth 58 ft. 3 in., and depth 38 ft. 2 in…
A walk around the decks and through the saloons and alleyways confirms the impression that little has been left to desire in a steamer of this type. The design is thoroughly British, the keynote stability with comfort, and the avoidance of the ornate as expressed in gilding and what is emphatically classed as ‘gimcrack’ decoration…
Electric lights are everywhere…It is worth recording that the operation of coaling, always so unpleasant a feature, is done through ports on the main deck, thus minimising the discomfort. As regards conveniences for working cargo, frozen meats, stores, and all that pertains to a large vessel’s internal economy and capacity, the Orontes lacks nothing.”
Register, 2 December 1902
Towed by tug boats along Gravesend Reach to Tilbury docks, 40km downstream of London Bridge, it looks slightly less imposing in the black and white photograph:
Orient Line passenger/cargo liner Orontes under tow of the tug Sirdar at Tilbury Dock, Essex, c. 1902-1908. Glass plate negative by Edgar Tarry Adams.
The Aldeburgh lifeboat crew were invited on board for a tour, and over lunch Mr Anderson, chairperson of the Orient-Pacific Line, remarked ‘that the ship could not easily be sunk, and if she took fire the outbreak could be isolated, and easily dealt with.’
The Royal Museums Greenwich describes Tilbury as ‘far more modern that the inner London docks…an unusual mixture of the largest steamers and small lighters and tugs…opened in 1886 by the East and West India Dock Company as part of the intense rivalry between the dock companies’.
Tilbury. Watercolour by William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931)
Off Tilbury Docks. Watercolour by Charles Edward Dixon, 1900
Would anyone from Paddock, Huddersfield, travelled to see Lizzie on board? If so, they would have needed a visitor’s ticket, like this one from 1915.
Visitors’ Ticket for RMS Orontes, 12 April 1915. ANMM Collection
“Third-class passengers will pay a good deal less than a halfpenny per mile for the privilege of journeying to Australia, and being at the same time comfortably housed and abundantly fed.”
Argus, 24 October 1902.
Captain J.F. Ruthven completed the ship’s paperwork on 24 October, noting that provisions on board were sufficient for 325 statute adults for a voyage of 56 days.
However the route to Australia was going to call at several Ports, as this Nissen and Arnold map shows:
Map of P & O Shipping Routes, early 20th century. Victorian Collections
The Orontes left Tilbury at 1.30 pm on Friday 24 October, arriving in Plymouth at 10 am on Saturday.
Plymouth. Glass photonegative by Francis Frith & Co., c. 1902
The steamer was only in Port for a few hours, leaving at 5.25 pm on Saturday 25 October for four days sailing to Gibraltar.
Gibraltar from Spanish Coast. The Rock Photographic Studio, Gibraltar
Four hours later, it was on to Marseilles, arriving 31 October. A few passengers embarked, and the ship left at 5.15pm for Naples, arriving 2 November. Mails were shipped, and the journey continued the next morning for Port Said, arriving 6 November.
1902 passenger vessel (Orontes). Port Adelaide Nautical Museum
“Port Said was reached at 8 a.m. on Nov, 6, and after coaling, the mail steamer entered the Canal, and made Suez at 9.45 a.m. on Nov. 7. The passage through the Canal occupied 18 hours, and the passage from Suez to Colombo occupied 8 days 21 hours. Colombo was made at 10.30 a.m. on Nov. 16, and left at 11.24 p.m.”
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1902
Orient Pacific R. M. S. Orontes. South Australian Maritime Museum
After ten days sailing across the Indian Ocean, the Orontes arrived at Freemantle, Australia, at 6.36 pm on 26 November. Leaving at 4.20 pm the next day, for another four days sailing to Semaphore, Adelaide.
The Register (an Adelaide newspaper) described the scene….
“Extremes meet at the Semaphore anchorage in the way of marine architecture…on Sunday the Tilikum, a canoe of 4 tons, arrived from the other side of the world, and on Monday there were at the anchorage the great German mail steamer Barbarossa 10,769 tons, the giant White Star liner Runic, 12,482 tons, and the new Orient-Pacific steamship Orontes. The spectacle presented was one which would have delighted a marine painter. These huge specimens of the shipbuilder’s triumph, anchored in a group, surrounded by a fleet of tenders, tugs, lighters, and busy steam launches flitting too and fro over a lightly rippled sea in the glorious sunlight of a sympathetic summer’s day. The Orontes was the leading feature in the show, because she is a new boat, had been the subject of weary watching from daylight, and made a capital presentment when she did sweep majestically up to the anchorage.”
Register, 2 December 1902
SS Orontes, 3 April 1915. Silver gelatin on paper by Harry Brisbane Williams
“The great size of the vessel has enabled the builders to make a very liberal provision of deck space for entertainment and amusement.
…The lavatory and bath arrangements for all classes of passengers are on a most liberal scale – one noticeable innovation being the baths, which are of Sicilian marble cut from the solid block. The arrangements for cooking are such as will ensure rapid service even with a full complement of passengers, and cleanliness and efficiency are secured by the use of plate-washing machines, mechanical dough mixers for breadmaking, and other up-to-date labour-saving devices.
The lighting and ventilation of the vessel has had special attention, the electric light having been everywhere introduced, and the installation being perhaps the largest of any merchant liner.”
The Advertiser, 23 October 1902
Expansion joints had been fitted to the superstructure ‘which entirely prevent the groaning and creaking so often heard when a ship is rolling’, and Captain Ruthven reported that during the voyage the ship had never rolled more than 5 degrees.
The Orontes left Melbourne on 4 December at 11 am for moorings at Neutral Bay, before berthing at Sydney quay on 6 December 1902 – 43 days after departing Tilbury Docks.
“The weather throughout the voyage was fine. The passengers by Australian ports numbered 593 in all classes. The usual sports dances and fancy dress balls were held, and the passage throughout proved a most pleasant one.”
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1902
R.M.S. Orontes, at Sydney in 1904. Glass plate negative by William Livermore
Not joining Lizzie on shore were six English milliners, intending to work ‘for a firm of civil and military tailors’. Refused ‘admittance to the Commonwealth, under the new Immigration Restriction Act, as ‘‘men under contract or agreement to perform manual labour’. The papers of the day ran several articles about the ‘felt hatters’ and debates in the House of Representatives.
R.M.S. “Orontes” berthed at Circular Quay, Sydney, 1902-1926. Orient Line postcard
When the the Australian general manager of the Orient Line and the ship’s captain gave speeches over lunch to a ‘numerous gathering of representative citizens’ on how the Orontes’ maiden voyage to Australia was proof of the increasing importance of local commerce and Sydney port as ‘its chief depot’, Lizzie was across the Tasman Sea in Auckland.
The R.M.S. Orontes departed Sydney at noon on 20 December for London, ‘via the usual ports of call’, Marseilles and Naples, the same day Lizzie Whitehead was marrying George Harry Siswick in the Auckland Registrar’s Office.
References
Adams, Edgar Tarry. (1902-1908). A slightly distant starboard quarter view of the Orient Line passenger/cargo liner Orontes [Photograph]. ID: N19806. Royal Museums Greenwich. www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-1191112
Advertiser. (1902, October 23). A new Orient liner. Trial trip of the Orontes. p. 11. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4890836
Argus. (1902, October 24). New Orient liner Orontes. p. 4. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9062509
Argus. (1902, December 9). No open door for hatters. Six Englishmen blocked. p. 5. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9088590/331831
Australian Star. (1902, November 27). Fast passage from London. p. 5. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228957069
Australian Star. (1902, December 19). On board the Orontes. p. 4. /trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/228943112
Daily Telegraph. (1902, November 28). The R.M.S. Orontes. p. 4. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236824827
Daily Telegraph. (1902, December 3). The Orient-Pacific Liner Orontes. p. 6. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236822122
Dixon, Charles. (1907). Orient Line to Australia SS Orontes Twin Screw 9,203 Tons [Postcard]. Object: 00004750. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/en/objects/44214
Dixon, Charles Edward. (1900). Off Tilbury Docks [Watercolour]. Bonhams. bonhams.com/auction/27489/lot/81/charles-edward-dixon-british-1872-1934-off-tilbury-docks/
Evening News. (1902, December 19). On the Orontes. Invitation luncheon. p. 3. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/114511831
Francis Frith and Company. (c. 1902). Plymouth [Photograph]. Negative: 48783. Royal Museums Greenwich. rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-1071938
Herald. (1902, December 20). Immigrants bound to service. p. 6. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110201432
Livermore, William. (1898-1904). RMS Orontes [Glass Slide]. Reference: P2000-021/1-0973. Hocken Collections. hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/53810
Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette. (1902, December 20). Banquet on the R.M.S. Orontes. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/233367687
Nissen and Arnold. (c. 1900s). Map of P & O Shipping Routes. ID: 6100.48. Kelly & Allsop Collection. Victorian Collections. victoriancollections.net.au/items/6684d58216337b271b28eaa4
Orient Line. (1902-1926). R.M.S. “Orontes” berthed at Circular Quay, Sydney [Postcard]. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/en/objects/44751
Orient Pacific R. M. S. Orontes [Illustration]. File: 3785. South Australian Maritime Museum. passengers.history.sa.gov.au/file/25512
Orient Steam Navigation Company. (1915). Visitor’s ticket for RMS Orontes. Object: 00042603. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/en/objects/144292
Passenger list for Orontes departing England for Sydney. WHITEHEAD, Miss S. Collection: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. Image 163. ancestry.com/search/collections/2997/records/47015378
Passenger list for Waikare departing Sydney for Auckland. WHITEHEAD, Miss L. Collection: New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1974. familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJDF-6X48
Port Adelaide Nautical Museum. (1902). 1902 passenger vessel (Orontes). File: 1909. passengers.history.sa.gov.au/file/30332
Register. (1902, December 2). The Orontes. A fine artistic boat. p. 8. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56593673
Rock Photographic Studio. (c. 1900). Gibraltar from Spanish Coast [Postcard]. delcampe.net/en_US/collectibles/postcards/gibraltar/gibraltar-from-spanish-coast-45509759.html
Sydney Morning Herald. (1902, October 27). New Orient-Pacific liner. p. 8. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14483926
Sydney Morning Herald (1902, December 4). Voyage of the Orontes. p. 8. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14513976
Sydney Morning Herald (1902, December 8). Arrival of the Orontes. p. 8. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14498899
Sydney Morning Herald (1902, December 20). Passengers by the Orontes. p. 12. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14497158
West Australian. (1902, December 30). Port of Fremantle. Luncheon on the R.M.S. Orontes. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/24851361
Williams, Harry Brisbane. (1915, April 3). “Orintes” 3.4.15 [Photograph]. Object: 00017051. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/objects/32349/ss-orontes-3-april-1915
Wyllie, William Lionel. (1851-1931). Tilbury [Watercolour]. Royal Museums Greenwich. Reference: PAF1652. rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-125787
Other readings
Adelaide Observer. (1902, November 8). Orient-Pacific Twin-Screen Steamship “Orontes.” p. 24. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/161788962/18985876
Auckland Weekly News. (1902, November 13). The new R.M.S. Orontes, engaged in the Australian-London trade. Photograph by Maclune, Macdonald and Co. p. 8. Record ID: AWNS-19021113-08-03. /kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/171202
Australian Town and Country Journal. (1902, December 3). The biggest British mail steamer in Australian waters. p. 21. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71496139
Daily Telegraph. (1902, December 15). Released on Saturday night. A message from Melbourne. p. 5. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236821293
Kalgoorlie Miner. (1902, November 28). London Railways and Docks and the P. and O. Co. p. 5. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/88763447
Orient Line. (1902-1926). Orient Pacific Line RMS Orontes [Postcard]. Australian National Maritime Museum. Record: 00027004. collections.sea.museum/en/objects/21926
“Orontes” Orient Line – in stormy weather [Postcard] (c. 1907). ID: H42667/26. State Library Victoria. viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE22074826
Sydney Morning Herald. (1902, December 18). Six additional hatters. p. 6. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14486556
Week. (1902, December 5). Orient Steamship Orontes. p. 21. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/183946757
Wilkinson, Frederick Garner. (1919-1926). RMS Orontes [Glass plate negative]. Object: 00040956. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/objects/139825
Williams, Harry Brisbane. (1915, April 1). “Orontes” 1.4.15. (at Circular Quay). Object: 00017046. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/objects/32341
Williams, Harry Brisbane. (1915, April 4). Orontes leaving Brisbane. Object: 00017055. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/objects/32353
Williams, Harry Brisbane. (1915, April 4). SS Orontes with people milling on Brisbane wharf. Object: 00017054. Australian National Maritime Museum. collections.sea.museum/objects/32352
