Ormonde to Oriana: Orient Line to Australia and Beyond

The stories I recount in this book are true. The characters I write about are real people and in nearly every case I have used real names. Only where the event described might cause embarrassment have I used a fictitious name.

My first thought for a title was “The World Was My Ashtray,” a title inspired by one of my first pursers who announced every time he opened a bottle of gin, “the world is my ash tray,” at the same time throwing the cap over his shoulder, through the open porthole, into the sea. The seabed between England and Australia must be littered with his bottle tops. Readers might be given an impression that officers in passenger ships spend a great deal of time drinking. We may have entertained more than officers have time for today. I never saw anyone incapable of responding to an emergency, or a watch-keeper drinking before going on duty. I wrote this book for fun when I was missing the sea and my former shipmates. It has a taken a lot of persuasion from friends to publish this story.

Nelson French joined the Orient Line as an Assistant Purser when he was released from the Army in 1947. He was appointed Purser in 1954 and thereafter served in every ship of the Orient fleet. He was involved in the commissioning and the Maiden Voyage of the last great Orient Liner, ORIANA. On leaving the sea, Nelson French became a Bursar at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. He retired in 1981 and now lives in Oxfordshire.