Review by Fred Wilkinson

The S.S. Oriana was built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, at a cost of £12.5 million pounds. Her 20 year career began in 1960.

She was a very innovative ship for her time, having been wind tunnel tested prior to building. She was equipped with full air conditioning, bow and stern thrusters, a welded aluminum superstructure, and had a dampened hull. Weighing 42,000 tons and measuring 804 by 97 feet, she was driven by twin screw, turbine engines and was capable of 30 knots. There was accommodation for 2,000 passengers and over 900 crew. The Oriana currently resides in China, as a tourist attraction.

This soft covered, 52 page book gives a brief history of the Orient and P&O Lines, and how the Oriana came to be built. The author uses many anecdotes from ship's crew, passengers and builders, which I found enjoyable. The ship is described throughout, and has numerous black and white photos accompanying the text. Also covered are some of the problems the Oriana encountered, including the collision with USS Kearsage an Essex Class aircraft carrier, fires, and a bomb threat.

Most of the 70 photographs included in the book are monochrome. There are two colour photographs of the Oriana in her original "corn" coloured livery, and also in her all white livery (all white was adopted in 1964). The photographs show the Oriana in closeup, profile, aerial, and in dry dock , and make this book most useful to the modeller wishing to build and detail the Revell/Modelcraft kit of this beautiful liner. This book is available at White Ensign Models, which is where I purchased it.