Abstract: Cask orienting machine providing a rest station, a filling station and an intermediate orientation station for casks, advancing means to elevate the casks and advance them through the various stations and means to eject a cask in the filling station in time relation to the transfer of the following casks, means to rotate the cask in the orientation station until orientation means engages in a peripheral shive hole in the cask thereby preventing further rotation thereof. The invention also provides a cask filling and shive inserting means for an oriented cask comprising means to introduce a racking spear through the shive hole of a cask and to initiate pressurizing and filling of the cask and means to position and drive a shive into the shive hole.