CAPETOWN CASTLE
R.M.S. 'Capetown Castle'
Not a wonderful photograph but a scene dear to our hearts! I think all of us remember the outward mail berthed at 'F' berth, Duncan Dock whilst on the homeward leg it was 'A'berth.
The Company sometimes adopted a somewhat Cavalier attitude to the spelling of ship's names, the 'Capetown' being no exception! She is readily recognized from her near sisters, 'Stirling' & 'Athlone' having her lower promenade deck plated in & windows instead of the earlier ships windswept deck.
O.N.: 166402
Builders: Harland & Wolff, Belfast. (yard No. 986)
Launched: September 23rd., 1937. Delivered April 1938, arriving Cape Town May 13th., 1938.
Tonnage: 27,000 gross, 16,454 net.
Dimensions: length 702.9 x beam 82.5 x depth 41 feet
Engines: Two Burmeister & Wain design oil 2S DA 10 cyl. by builder. 4,650 h.p., 24,000 b.h.p.., 19.5 knots
Passengers: 292 first, 499 cabin.
Reefer space: 344,619 cu.ft.
1940, November 26th., requisitioned for war service. Over next six years carried 164,000 troops.
1942 November, carried troops to North Africa campaign.
1946, July 29th. Returned to Company. To Belfast for refit.
1947, January returned to Mail Service. Passenger accommodation now 244 first & 553 cabin (after 1957 called tourist)
1960, October 17th. She arrived at the pilot station, Las Palmas at about 0530. Seeing the pilot launch approaching Captain Byles ordered the engines to be put ahead. The starting valve of the starboard engine jammed open so that when the super heated oil fired the compressed air valve stayed open. The Chief Engineer, Senior Second Engineer and four others were either killed with the resulting explosion and fire or died shortly after.
The engine room was sealed off and the CO2 system activated. The life boats from the 'Windsor Castle' bunkering at the time were sent out and with the Capetown's own boats all passengers and crew not required to fight the fire were evacuated. The ship was saved with no further loss of life, something of an achievement in the light of the loss of other ships (French Lines 'Antilles') after similar mishaps.
The Capetown lay alongside Las Palmas for some weeks whilst temporary repairs were carried out. To save the cargo of oranges successive vessel's from the Fruit Ship fleet lay alongside supplying electricity. Eventually the ship returned to Southampton under her own power escorted by a tug.
(I have written this from memory, if anyone can correct me or supply more detail I would be very grateful. OGK)
1965, January. Two bars of gold were stolen from the bullion room by the ship's carpenters who had managed to get through to the bullion room by way of the air shafts. The gold bars were recovered the following voyage hidden in a sand bin.
(The legend I was told was that through all the years the Company carried to England the gold bars only one 'disappeared', this was from the train bringing the gold from the Transvaal to Durban docks. Hence the 'ceremony' of the heavily escorted (by police) bullion train arriving on the wharf, and then on the coast until the ship sailed from Cape Town we carried two S.A.P. constables who took it in turns to keep watch outside the bullion room. My father told of his disappointment when the 'Kenilworth Castle' arrived at Plymouth to find just a docker who said 'I've come for the gold guv.')
1966, May 10th. Grounded at Flushing, refloated at high tide.
1967, August 23rd last departure from Cape Town
1967 September 26th. Arrived at La Spezia for demolition.
(Details from Union-Castle A Fleet History by Peter Newall)
Capetown Castle has sailed on her last passenger run; she was withdrawn from service in September (1967). The vessel left Cape Town flying a 29-ft paying off pennant, but a complete lack of wind on arrival at Southampton prevented the final ceremony. Passengers disembarked and the job of stripping out and de-storing began.
The 27,000 ton liner, always a popular and happy ship with passengers and crew, was built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast in 1938. She served as a troopship during the war and on some voyages carrying as many as 6,000 troops. Towards the end of 1942 she went from Bombay to Suez to pick up a load of German prisoners - "a particularly bad lot, this". prisoners were in a continual state of unrest as they had been told prior to capture that no British ship could survive more than a day at sea. Capetown Castle headed for Durban and Cape Town but the waters around the South African coast were infested at this time with the worst of the U-boat packs. She was sent to Saldanha Bay from where she made a dash across the South Atlantic to the Magellan Straits. Emerging into the comparative quiet of the Pacific Ocean she made her way to Panama, eventually reaching New York and then crossed safely to Great Britain.
A group with memories to recall met last August, at the invitation of Captain R.A.D. Cambridge, at Southampton's Red Lion Hotel. They were the ship's gunners during the war. Captain Cambridge was second officer of Capetown Castle when hostilities were declared and he was in charge of the 6 inch gun of 1911 vintage which was installed at Cape Town. This was later changed at New Zealand for a 1916 anti-submarine gun and the ship also had a 3 inch anti-aircraft gun.
Among those at the reunion was Mr. Towyn 'Taffy' Jones, now bosun in Pendennis Castle, who recalled that "we carried half a million troops during the war without losing a single life. There were some narrow misses. Once the ship's stern was practically lifted out of the water by an explosion and the hull had plenty of bullet marks.
Capetown Castle was the first of the mail ships to be restored to pre-war standards of elegance and comfort and almost forgotten memories of luxurious ocean travel were revived when she left Southampton for the Cape in January 1947.
Since 1965 she has been engaged in an extra service to Cape Town via Madeira, with calls either at Ascension and St. Helena or Walvis Bay.