This forepart of the wreck sits upright on the seabed with its keel orientated 0/180 degrees. The stern section has lain over on its port side. The forepart of the wreck appears to have been extensively salvaged and lowered in height.

Event and Historical Information:
The ORONSA was a steel hulled steamship built in 1906 by Harland and Wolff Ltd, Belfast. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 8075gt, 4515nt; 465ft length x 56ft breadth x 35ft height; 3 decks,7 bulkheads, forecastle 86ft; twin screw propulsion powered by 6 steam boilers linked to 8 cylinder quadruple expansion engine producing 1125 horsepower. At the time of loss, the vessel was owned by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and registered at Liverpool. The ship was commissioned during a period when the company was modernising of its fleet with larger, luxury passenger liners. In 1910, the company was acquired by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co but continued to trade under its own name. The ship had left New York carrying nitrate and sugar from Talcahuano to Liverpool under the command of master Frederick Holt Hobson on 13 April 1918. The ship was part of a convoy accompanied by 2 destroyers and 3 patrol boats. Despite being armed and have seven lookouts posted, it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-91at 2.32am, 12 miles west of Bardsey Island. The torpedo struck near number 3 hatch. The engine room filled and the boilers blew up as a result of the initial torpedo explosion. Eye witnesses suggested that the ship's back was broken, and indeed the ship sank very quickly (5 minutes). There were 262 people on board (151 crew, 111 passengers). The names of the crewmembers who lost their lives are commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London: Edwin Joseph Lanchbury, first Baker, age 38, and J Stone, 6th engineer, age 26. Confusion over the name of the vessel (a Canadian liner of the same name appears to have was torpedoed earlier in the same month) caused a note to appear in the Brecon and Rador Express on 9 May 1918 referring relatives making inquiries to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. The wreck's contemporary location was given as 52 53 00N, 05 05 00W. The wreck was salvaged by Risdon Beazley Ltd in 1951-52. During World War II the Risdon Beazley Ltd salvage company operated most of the Admiralty's salvage vessels. After the war they operated around the UK recovering non-ferrous metals from depths down to 300 metres. The ORONSA was inspected by HMS BEAGLE in October 1982 at 52 53 05N, 05 05 09W. The submarine U 91 which sank the ORONSA also sank the steamships ROBERT EGGLETON (NPRN: 271658), RENFREW (NPRN: 240293), LANDONIA (NPRN: 516159) and, on the same day as the ORONSA, the DAMAO (NPRN: 271669). The ORONSA was included in the multi-beam surveys undertaken by Bangor University in 2018, as part of the Royal Commission's HLF funded Partnership Project - 'Commemorating the Forgotten U-Boat War around the Welsh Coast 1914-18'.

Sources include:

ADM137/4015 Home Waters Ships Attacked April 16-30 1918, The National Archives, Kew
Brecon and Radnorshire Express, 9 May 1918, p.7
The Cambria Daily Leader, 30 April 1918, p.1
HMSO, 1988, British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-18, p.88
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Confidential War Loss Record 1914-18, p.213
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 April - 30 June 1918, p.10 (i)
Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping , 1 July 1915 -30 June 1916, number 406 in O
Mercantile Memorial - WWI, London Remembers
Oronsa, uboat.net
Risdon Beazley, Wikipedia
SS Oronsa, Wreck Site, EU
Tennant, A J, 1990, British Merchant Ships sunk by U-Boats 1914-18 War, p.180
Oronsa, U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea
U 91, uboat.net
UK Hydrographic Office Wrecks and Obstructions Database. ? Crown Copyright and database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk).

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, March 2019.

This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.