SS Orcades (1937)

RMS Orcades was a British built ocean liner that served on the UK-Australia route as a Royal Mail Ship from 1937-1939. Orcades was requistioned by the British government as a troopship in 1939.

She was torpedoed and sunk by German U-172 on 10 October 1942 off Cape Good Hope. The survivors were picked up by the SS Narwik, a Polish steamship of 7,000 gross tons owned by the Gdynia America Line. RMS Orcades, commanded by a Captain Fox, left Cape Town on 9 October 1942. On 10 October at about 11:30am she was hit by two torpedoes, but did not sink immediately. A third torpedo missed but a fourth hit and she settled beneath the waves at about 14:00. Forty-five of her 1,067 crew and passengers were lost with the ship.

U172 was an IXC type submarine, commanded by Kapitan Lieutenant Carl Emmermann.

The vessel's sister ship was Orion. The interior fittings of Orcades and Orion were designed by New Zealand born modernist architect Brian OʼRorke.

Orcades is an ancient name for the Orkney Islands.