NEDERLAND Line's 20,166-ton passenger ship Oranje made her maiden voyage in September 1939 and later enjoyed a second career as Italian vessel Angelina Lauro.

She was ordered from the Nederland Shipbuilding Company and launched by Queen Wilhelmina in September 1938.

Unfortunately, the maiden voyage coincided with the outbreak of the Second World War and the liner was taken over and converted to a hospital ship for the Allies.

The diesel-engined Oranje was a fast ship capable of 26 knots and used her speed to advantage on numerous wartime voyages.

After the war the Nederland Line was keen to re-establish its services and Oranjie called at Southampton to embark passengers on December 30, 1946.

In 1957 Oranje was the first big liner to go through the Suez Canal following the crisis which occurred the previous year.

She was used for occasional cruises, taking passengers from Amsterdam and Southampton.

By 1964 the Nederland Line decided to end its passenger services and sell its flagship to the Flotta Lauro Line. The sale of Oranje was estimated at £10m and her new owners decided to call her after the wife of Signor Achille Lauro, then the owner of the Lauro Line. The liner started the second phase of her career with a sailing from Southampton to Sydney, Australia, on March 7, 1966. In the next few years she carried thousands of emigrants to the other side of the world.

In 1972 she was withdrawn from the route and moved to the Caribbean where she cruised out of Nassau.

Occasionally the Lauro Line chartered the vessel out as an alternative to running their own cruises.

In 1979, during one of the charters, Angelina Lauro caught fire in the Virgin Islands and was so badly damaged that Flotta Lauro decided to scrap the ship but she sank a few days after being taken in tow to Taiwan.