Smith's Emigrated to Australia (General)

by sidtoomey01 , Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Thursday, December 02, 2021, 08:45 (1091 days ago) @ Forest Freda

Hi again

Amos Smith is listed on the passenger list for the Orient Line's R.M.S. "Oruba" 3351 Tons, Captained by John Linklater, travelling from the Port of London, arriving in Sydney 28th September 1901.
He is listed as a 3rd class passenger. No other details recorded against his name.
Trivia about the voyage and ship.
Three people died during the trip. Two from natural causes with the third being a boy named John Clark,ten and a half years old was killed when he fell down one of the coal bunker chutes on 25th August.
After the ship left Fremantle West Australia for the final run to Eastern Australian ports, it encountered a South West gale off Cape Leuwin. The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported "it made things lively for a while, seas breaking on the high decks with exceptional fury , causing the 6000 * ton ship to labour heavily". Another newspaper reported the ship took on huge amounts of water.
* This contradicts the 3351 tons shown on the passenger list.From a history of the ship, it appears the larger figure was the gross tonnage and the lighter one was the net tonnage.
In late 1914,during the early part of WW1, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty came up with the idea of disguising merchant ships to look like capital warships. One of those purchased (reportedly 14 ships) was "Oruba". With the addition of wooden profiles added it was made to resemble the Super Dreadnought Battleship HMS "Orion". However the Germans weren't fooled, probably because the construction activity was reported in the New York Times.
The "Oruba" was scuttled in 1916 at Lemnos Greece to act as a breakwater.
(Source for this information was Benjidog Ship Histories, also confirmed on other websites.

Sid Toomey.

P.S. Brief details of the Smith Brothers emigrating to Australia are also recorded on the "Emigrants list" under the resources tab of this site.