ex-USS PCE833, ex-HMS Kilham, ex-Sognefjord, ex-Orion, ex-Orion II, ex-Corona, Orient Explorer /+ sisters

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This pic i like very much,makes me laugh always.I think they were trying skijumping with sunnfjord,but they do it wrong way...surprisingly there was no damage for the ship or passengers.So you really can call this pce/am class vessels multitalented,you can do almost anything with these ships and they are unbreakable=)

There must have been a navigation mistake, fortunately there were only Norwegians on board there and a crew who knew how to handle it.!
On both side of where she hit there was rock walls, so it was really a serious situation. This also happened at night time, when you are more depended of the lighthouses and that kind of tools.
The trip from Bergen to Sogn took maybe 12- 14 hours non-stop, that is a long time when you need to have full concentration all the time.

A modern wessel made of aluminium would maybe have been destroyied by an acident like this. Officers on board of the wessels now have a lot more spare time than before, then they can rest and recharge their batteries..

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[IMG][/IMG]m/s orion summer 1991[IMG][/IMG]Dining saloon of orion in 1987 before selling to finland[IMG][/IMG]Orion in Kotka shipyard Finland at winter 1990

The sofas on the pictures are the original ones, so is all the tables. It would be no problems using this ship in regular services with the original furnitures; or wathever she would be used for- it would have suited her perfectly. If something got damaged here, they just took one from "Sunnfjord" to put in instead.!
The sofas look quite fine on the photos, it has its old world charm that we know from pictures and visits on board. There has also been filmed there on several occations, then we can stydy how it looks like.

[ombugge]

I hope the crew members from "Sognefjord" get to see this forum, guess they will love it..!!

If you know any of them, or some of the "regulars" during that time, please feel free to invite them to this forum.

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Cardeck of orion in cyprus larnaka 1993 fallPart of kitchen of orionNew years eve in 1987 and the whole family off us where having a party at orion,the renovation was in good progress for the first cruising season 1988Winter wonderland 1990

The car deck had a part that could be rotated in order to get the cars in place easily, that circle still shows on the photo of the deck. That tool must have been handy since the cars oftenly drove in from the side of the ship. On the photos we can see how nice the front part of the car deck became after the repair, it`s a good piece of handicraft.!

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Now people knows she is taken well care of. The pictures really shows how well se is taking care of by her owners, and how lovely she looks now.!
If she had Norwegian owners, they would have restrictions on what changes they could do on the wessel, etc. Since she is an old ship with a special style, owners can`t do anything without applying for it first. Of course they get permission to install modern navigation systems, or nessesary repairs. So here you see elder ships with the original interior.. and top modern navigation equipments as a part of the old bridge area..!! This is newer regulations that have come later years, there has been more fucus on this.
I`m sure they will love the way she is restaured now, obviously the owners has the knowledge for how to do it. They have a good sence of details, and it shows in the choice of colours of curtains and details on the bridge for instance. For everybody who has old pictures or memories to lean on, it`s a joy to see the newer photos of her.!
Here in Norway there is prices given if for instance a wessel is resaured in a great way, in her current look good old Orient Explorer/ Sognefjord would have been a strong candidate..!

[ombugge]

Lately there has been a lot of photos of the ship here, most of them on the web. But now people knows she is taken well care of.. There was a news report here with pictures taken both inside and outside of the ship, you know she mean a lot for us here.

Nice to hear that there are people interested in the old ship. Do you have a link to the website(s) where this is available???

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m/s Sognefjord/Orion

removed personal photos

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M/s Sognefjord/Orion

About the dining room,It served as bar / dancing place in Finland ,while the ship was cruising to vyborg USSR/Russia and the old sofas werent practical and like i said earlier some of them in very bad shape.But all the sofas that were located in the old damesalong (ladies room) got new fabric and were saved.

And commenting abt restoration of old ships, Here in Finland government or shipowners(not all of course)dont respect the interiors or etc enough to save those in the original shape, the money comes first sadly.The rules are same for old or new vessels by government, and my father had many fights with them during those ten years.for example the old life boats, they needed to be changed because ,Finnish maritime administration demanded it.My father was sad to replace the nice old wooden boats with the glassfibre boats.

Cardeck was wooden still until 1990, but it was in very bad shape after heavy use in the fjords and thats why replaced by cement .New wooden deck would have being just too expensive that time.

Iam glad to see also that the ship seems to be in good hands, while her sister(Kristina Brahe ex Sunnhordland) here in finland needs to have same kind of treatment, because its very hard to find original feeling in that ship. anymore
If i would have any extra money i would buy Kristina Brahe and restore her as more beatiful and originall then she is now!

[Guest]

Nice to hear that there are people interested in the old ship. Do you have a link to the website(s) where this is available???

I wrote a contribution in the lokal paper here, mentioning her and the web sites made by her owners. Then a person from the lokal radio called because they wanted to have a feature about it. The next day they got a phone call from one of the officers form the old days, they should be very happy for how well she has been taking care of..

Since some people here has kept an eye on her all the time, the photos on new web sites were more familiar. But they surely like all good news about her, and so they tell me.

[Guest]

When going from Molde to Finland she had to pass through some of the worst ocean areas of the world, a ship in a bad shape would never survived that.! (remember Sunnfjord..) The very long Norwegian coast has "swallowed" many ships up through the years, and a lot of the crew on board of them too..!! Also several in my family has died at sea on different accidents, it`s a part of living at the coast..
For instance the area north of Måløy is among seamen called "The death curve of the main street" (dødssvingen på riksvei 1)..!! Officially the area is called Stad, but that`s in the maps.. Also areas further south is hard to pass through, both because of the weather conditions and the landscape. There`s many rocks and clips along the way, the ships are required to use a marine pilot (los).
I guess it was wear; not rust- you could see on the hull. Maybe on steel boats hull the coulor might not sit so well. Also on newer pictures you see the paint weared off, for instance on the picasaweb photos of the ship going up on the dry dock. Pictures from nov 1982 shows the same, the colour weared off the lower bow by winter ice, waves etc. It looks worse than it is.

[Guest]

She has a huge part in peoples life, it`s hard to describe. When she was taken out, it was a enourmos lost. A stormy Western Norwegian coast is a tough experience, but she handled it with grace..!!

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Some of the pictures on this thread is copied form a book released in Norway, in that book it`s also a story told by the officers on Kristina Brahe:
Just after she had got new engines they were sailing side by side of Orion, they increases the speed and got a short lead of the other ship. Then suddenly it comes a lot of black smoke up from Orion while she speeded up fastly, got up on the side of KB and far past her in a few minutes time. A bit later they heard what had happen: A kid from the passengers who was guesting on the bridge, had asked the captain if he really would let KB go. The captain looked at him, before giving full speed on the old engines.. "Orion" were shaking while soot (sot)and other dirt went up from the funnel when the engines were pushed to their limit. The officers on KB said the other ship had a speed of over 16 knots when it was overtaking KB..!!

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m/s sognefjord /orion

About this race with Kristina Brahe, I was onboard also that time on bridge and the correct speed was 14,7 knots.Because i remember that captain from KB contact us by radio and said:Your ship is running nicely and we measured the speed of 14,7 knots for you.All this took abt 10 minutes and after that we let Kristina Brahe to passed us.I also remember that my father said that he dont dare to take out all the power from the engines, so they wouldnt broke down.And if i remember correctly, the engines were adjust like that you even couldnt take all power out them from the bridge.Normal cruising speed was 11-12 knots.

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m/s sognefjord/orion

About restoration/interior, when she came to finland the sofas were only original furnitures as you see from the pics, all the nice looking oak/leather chairs were removed from there i think by the owner in molde.its a pitty because i think those would have been saved and restored, infact there was only 1 chair like that saved by the owner before us and it was located at ships chart room after bridge.It was my fathers favorite chair, he liked the style and how solid it was after 50 years age .A real quality!

All the cabins were saved at our time as they were in Norway,floors got only new carpets.No changes werent done if not necessary.The dining room like i said earlier served as dancebar,therefor it needed different kind seats.the roykjesalong what served as restaurant got new pine tables and chairs insteadt of the black and red chairs.We even didnt have a clue what kind furnitures were the originals ,because those were removed before us.One year ago Norwegian Lars helge Isdahl send me interior pics of sognefjord and it was then when i understand that the chair in chartroom was a part of the original interior.

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Orient explorer

Orient explorer is taken care like we see from the pics from inside and outside, but they have also change many things like the woodpanels in restaurant/bar and the interior roofs are different style and material .The cabins are mostly changed also from 2 person cabins to more larger ones and the messrooms have beeing united and the nice sofas from the officers mess have being removed.But i think all those changes were necessary for them to keep the ship running.

Ship like ex USS PCE 833,HMS Kilham, Sognefjord,Orion,Orient explorer is also very hard to restore at one style because she had many lifes and different purposes, starting as warship.....and ending as cruise yacht.But i think it has been the reason why she is saved so long time, she have always turn into diffrent variations for different owners and saved from the hungry scrappers.

Iam very glad that me and my family are part of that history.And i really love that ship after spending hundreds of days during those ten years there, exploring every corner inside of her.