RMMV Capetown Castle

Technopedia Center

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
S1 Informatics S1 Information Systems S1 Information Technology S1 Computer Engineering S1 Electrical Engineering S1 Civil Engineering

faculty of Economics and Business
S1 Management S1 Accountancy

Faculty of Letters and Educational Sciences
S1 English literature S1 English language education S1 Mathematics education S1 Sports Education

RMMV Capetown Castle - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History
Postcard of RMMV Capetown Castle
United Kingdom
Name	RMMV Capetown Castle
Owner	Union-Castle Mail Steam Ship Company
Port of registry	London, UK
Route	Southampton-Las Palmas-Cape Town-Port Elizabeth-East London-Durban
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast^[1]
Yard number	986^[2]
Launched	23 September 1937^[1]
Completed	31 March 1938^[2]
Maiden voyage	29 April 1938
Out of service	9 September 1967
Identification	IMO number: 5062285
Fate	Scrapped, 1967^[3]
General characteristics
Type	Passenger liner
Tonnage	27,002 GRT^[1]
Length	734 ft (224 m)^[3]
Beam	82 ft 6 in (25.15 m)^[3]
Draught	32 ft (9.8 m)^[1]
Installed power	28,000bhp
Propulsion	2 × 10-cylinder Harland and Wolff double acting two stroke cycle diesel engines twin screw^[4]
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)^[3]
Capacity	As built, 292 1st class, 499 cabin class. 1946, 243 1st class, 553 tourist class

RMMV Capetown Castle was a British passenger liner built by Harland & Wolff at Belfast for the Union-Castle Line's mail service from Southampton to South Africa. She was launched in September 1937 and sailed on her maiden voyage on 29 April 1938.

History

The ship was built by the builders Harland & Wolff and was launched on 23 September 1937 and was a slightly enlarged version of the Stirling Castle and Athlone Castle of 1936. After the outbreak of World War II, in January 1940, the government introduced the Liner Requisition Scheme and Capetown Castle was taken up for conversion into a troop ship. In 1943 she took part in Operation Bolero, the build-up of troops in preparation for D-Day, and was eventually returned to her owners in 1946, having sailed 484,000 miles and carried over 164,000 troops. The ship was refurbished at Belfast and returned to commercial service on 9 January 1947.^[3]

On 17 October 1960 the ship was arriving at Las Palmas when an explosion occurred in the engine room killing seven crewmen.^[4] In July 1965 a long-planned acceleration of the Cape mail service was introduced, reducing the passage time by two days. The new schedule required only seven ships rather than eight and Capetown Castle, like her near sisters Athlone Castle and Stirling Castle did not have enough speed to maintain it.^[5] The three were replaced by two fast cargo liners (Southampton Castle and Good Hope Castle) and the earlier two ships were sold for breaking up. The Good Hope Castle was late being delivered and Capetown Castle was kept on in the mail service until the new ship arrived in January 1966. She was then put on an "extra" service from Southampton to Cape Town via Flushing (Vlissingen), Madeira, Ascension, St. Helena and Walvis Bay. This continued for almost two years until she made her final arrival at Southampton on 9 September 1967 where she was withdrawn from service. She was sold for scrap and left Southampton on 19 September for La Spezia, arriving on 26 September for breaking up by Terrestre Marittima.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Gascoyne, Rodney (2011). "Ships and Trips of Union-Castle Line". members.shaw.ca. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
^ ^a ^b McCluskie, Tom (2013). The Rise and Fall of Harland and Wolff. Stroud: The History Press. p. 145. ISBN 9780752488615.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co". red-duster.co.uk. 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Air Start Explosion of the Capetown Castle". marinediesels.info. 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
^ Mitchell & Sawyer, The Cape Run
^ Kludas, Great Passenger Ships of the World Vol.4

External links

Gascoyne, Rodney. "Life at Sea with Union-Castle". An account of life on board this ship and others of the Union-Castle Line in the 1960s.
Boyle, Ian. "Capetown Castle - Union-Castle Line". Postcards and photographs of Capetown Castle.

v t e Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1966
Shipwrecks	10 Jan: MV Monte Palomares 20 Jan: Bright Star, Mi Amigo 22 Feb: Rexton Kent 4 Mar: Sand Star 11 Mar: Evi 21 Apr: Costance, USS Lewis, USS Walter B. Cobb 24 May: Kaitawa 26 May: Eastern Mariner May (unknown date): USS Tingey 10 Jun: Dixmude 25 Jun: USS Stalwart 11 Jul: USS Naifeh 13 Jul: USS Ulvert M. Moore 25 Jul: Koula F 31 Jul: MV Darlwyne 14 Sep: Hai August (unknown date): USS Maurice J. Manuel October (unknown date): USNS American Mariner, USS Suisun 11 Oct: White Eagle/ex-George Weems 15 Oct: Hernan Cortes 10 Nov: Shibam 11 Nov: Isle of Gigha 29 Nov: Daniel J. Morrell 30 Nov: Pionere 8 Dec: Heraklion 12 Dec: Agia Varvara 18 Dec: USS Colahan 30 Dec: USS Mahnomen County Unknown date: USS Corson, Francis Garnier, Flying Gull
Other incidents	February (unknown date): Beberibe 21 Apr: USS Gantner April (unknown date): Michelangelo 10 May: RMMV Capetown Castle June–July: Loss of MV Alva Cape 7 Sep: Hanseatic 26 Oct: USS Oriskany 25 Nov: Doris Unknown date: Loch Seaforth
1965 1967

This article about a specific naval ship or boat of the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Categories:

Hidden categories: