HSK 1 Orion
Auxiliary cruiser

Built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg in 1930/31 as the freighter Kurmark, she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine at the outbreak of WWII and converted into the auxiliary cruiser Orion, commissioned on 9 December 1939. She was 148 m long, with a beam of 18.6 m and a draught of 8.2 m, and as a cruiser displaced 15,700 tons. Her armament consisted of six 15 cm guns, one 7.5 cm gun, one 3.7 cm and four 2 cm AA guns, six torpedo tubes and two Arado Ar 196 float planes. Her top speed was 14 knots.