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The largest shipping company in Holland
at this time was the Holland America Line
that operated the countries largest
liners on the North Atlantic run. The two
smaller Dutch companies, the Nederland
Line and Rotterdamshe Lloyd Line,
provided a service between Holland and
the Dutch East Indies. Oranje was
the largest liner built for the Nederland
Line at that time. She completed two
cruises from Amsterdam - Madeira before
entering service on the East Indies run.
Oranje set out on her first voyage
from Amsterdam around the Cape of Good
Hope and on to Bativa/Dutch East Indies
September 4th 1939. The escalation of
World War Two led to the Nederland Line
laying her up at Surabaya/East Indies.
Australian authorities took control of
Oranje in 1941 so they could
operate her as a hospital ship. After
being returned to the Nederland Line in
1947, they had Oranje undergo a
refit before deploying her on a new route
between Amsterdam, Southampton and
Djakarta/East Indies.
Following the Dutch East Indies
gaining independence from Holland in
1949, trade between the two countries
began to deteriorate. This led to
Oranje being relocated on the
Amsterdam - Southampton, Suez, Singapore
and Australia run in 1958. She underwent
a refit in 1959 before setting out on her
first round the world voyage in 1960.
After completing 16 of these voyages,
eight in each direction, she was sold to
the Italian ‘Lauro Line’ in
1964. The new owners had Oranje
undergo an extensive rebuild that
increased her volume to 24,377 tons. Two
years later, she re-entered service on
the Bremen - Southampton, Suez, Australia
and New Zealand run under the name
Angelino Lauro. The
ever-declining numbers of passenger
traveling on that route by ship led to
her being operated as a full time cruise
ship from 1971. Costa chartered
Angelino Lauro in 1978 to
be operated under the name
Angelina. During a Caribbean
cruise March 31st of that year, a galley
fire spread throughout her decks while
moored at St Thomas/Virgin Islands. The
burned out hulk of Angelina sank
in mid Pacific September 21st 1979 when
on tow to the scrap yard at
Kaohsuing/Japan.
Below, Angelina Lauro at
Sydney/Australia
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