His Majesty's Troopship S.S Orcades

by Neil MacPherson

You may wonder what a 24,456-ton troop ship has to do with the Burma Railway. The photo below from the Australian War Museum, taken on the 17th February 1942, showing some of the 3000 Australians from the Middle East ready to disembark in Java, provides the answer

Most of these troops captured in Java after the fighting, ended up working on the railway, so the Orcades is an important and integral part of their story.

It was known as the “Lone Wolf” because most of its duties as a troop transport were undertaken without escort, because of its high speed, as was the case on the Port Tewfik to Colombo leg of that fateful journey to the Dutch East Indies.

After discharging the troops in Batavia, the still-warm bunks were filled with General Wavell’s staff who were being evacuated to Australia, through the Sundra Straits, just hours before the Japanese Navy and Air Force controlled all the air and seas around the Dutch East Indies.

Continuing with its role as a troopship, its charmed life ended on the 10th October 1942 off the coast of Africa at longitude 31.51South, latitude 18.30 East - that is 280 miles off the West coast of Africa.

HMT SS Orcades

At 10.28 on the 10th October the unescorted Orcades, still with Capt Charles Fox at the helm, was sunk by the persistent U-172 “Capt Carl Emmermann”, becoming one of the biggest victims of U boat war.

Between 10.58 and 1300 hours when the ship sunk beneath the waves, 5 torpedoes were fired into the stricken vessel; one of these was a dud and failed to explode.

With 1065 people on board it was quite an amazing feat and typical of the training and professionalism of the Captain and crew of the Orcades that 1017 people survived the sinking, only 48 lost their lives - 28 crew, 2 Gunners and 18 passengers.

The Captain, 289 crew, 34 gunners and 693 passengers were picked up by the Polish merchant Narwik (Master Zawarda) and landed at Capetown on 12 October. Captain Charles Fox was awarded the Lloyds War Medal for bravery at sea. 

One wonders at the plight of the 3000 Australians and the crew if the Japanese had been successful in sinking the Orcades while in the area controlled by their Navy and Air Force.