RMS Orizaba explained

-- commercial vessels --> Ship Name: Orizaba Ship Owner: Pacific Steam Navigation Company^[1] Ship Operator: Orient Steam Navigation Company^[2] Ship Builder: Barrow Ship Building Co, Barrow-in-Furness Ship Yard Number: 138 Ship Launched: 6 May 1886 Ship Fate: Wrecked, 1905 Ship Type: Royal Mail Ship Ship Tonnage: 6,298

RMS Orizaba was a Royal Mail Ship wrecked off Rockingham, Western Australia on 16 February 1905. On her approach to Fremantle, a smog of bushfire smoke was obscuring the coast and the captain lost his bearings. The ship went aground in of water on Five Fathom Bank, west of Garden Island.^[3]

All 160 people on board were evacuated safely. It is one of the largest ships ever to be wrecked in Australian waters.

In 2014 the wreck was still in use as a dive site.^[4]

The ship was celebrated in music by Australian composer Auguste Wiegand, in his gavotte of the same name.

Further reading

• McCarthy . M. . 1980 . SS Orizaba, unpublished Wreck Inspection Report . Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum .
• Wolfe . A. . 1986 . SS Orizaba, Graduate Diploma Course in Maritime Archaeology Report . Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum .

External links

• WA Heritage Council: "MANDURAH SHIPWRECK TRAIL", P. 2 (online-PDF 155 KB)

-32.2786°N 115.6249°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: Orizaba . Shipping And Shipbuilding . Shipping and Shipbuilding Research Trust . 11 November 2021.
2. Web site: SS Orizaba 1905 . 7 May 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924091712/http://www.rockinghamgateway.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=186&Itemid=134 . 24 September 2015 . dead .
3. News: Marine Disaster. 19 January 2016. The West Australian. 17 February 1905. Perth, WA. 7. Trove.
4. Web site: 7 May 2014. RMS Orizaba plaque. 2020-07-09. Fremantle Port Authority. en-au.