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Capetown Castle of 1938


 
This page is one of a series devoted to postcards and photographs of the ocean liners and cruise ships in the Union-Castle Line. This page shows images of the 1938 liner Capetown Castle

Capetown Castle was built by Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast (yard no.986), who also built her Burmeister & Wain designed 10-cyl diesel engines totalling 24000bhp. Subsequent passenger ships for the mail service reverted to steam turbine power. She was launched on 23rd September 1937 and was delivered in April 1938.  Her first arrival at Cape Town was on 13th May 1938 on the mail service. She was requisitioned in 1940 and carried 164,000 troops and passengers before release in July 1946. After refit Capetown Castle returned to the mail service in January 1947, now accommodating 244 first and 553 cabin (later renamed tourist) class passengers. In October 1960 she suffered an engine room explosion off Las Palmas which killed seven. In 1965 an accelerated eleven and a half day mail service was introduced, for which Capetown Castle was too slow. She was replaced, along with Athlone Castle and Stirling Castle, by the new Southampton Castle and Good Hope Castle. Capetown Castle was used as a one-class ship carrying 776 passengers on an intermediate service taking fifteen days. In September 1966 she made two cruises to Palma but then returned to the mail service briefly because of delays to the delivery of Good Hope Castle. The last departure of Capetown Castle from Cape Town was on 23rd August 1967 and she departed Southampton for breaking up at La Spezia on September 26th.



 

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Capetown Castle of 1938

All images link to larger copies which will open in a new window/tab

Capetown Castle was built by Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast (yard no.986), who also built her Burmeister & Wain designed 10-cyl diesel engines totalling 24000bhp. Subsequent passenger ships for the mail service reverted to steam turbine power. She was launched on 23rd September 1937 and was delivered in April 1938.  Her first arrival at Cape Town was on 13th May 1938 on the mail service. She was requisitioned in 1940 and carried 164,000 troops and passengers before release in July 1946. After refit Capetown Castle returned to the mail service in January 1947, now accommodating 244 first and 553 cabin (later renamed tourist) class passengers. In October 1960 she suffered an engine room explosion off Las Palmas which killed seven. In 1965 an accelerated eleven and a half day mail service was introduced, for which Capetown Castle was too slow. She was replaced, along with Athlone Castle and Stirling Castle, by the new Southampton Castle and Good Hope Castle. Capetown Castle was used as a one-class ship carrying 776 passengers on an intermediate service taking fifteen days. In September 1966 she made two cruises to Palma but then returned to the mail service briefly because of delays to the delivery of Good Hope Castle. The last departure of Capetown Castle from Cape Town was on 23rd August 1967 and she departed Southampton for breaking up at La Spezia on September 26th.

Capetown Castle was a slightly larger version of Stirling Castle and Athlone Castle and could easily be identified by not having the open first class promenade on D Deck which featured on the earlier ships. Post WW2 images of Capetown Castle can be identified by the white masts.





Capetown Castle Official Postcards

As usual, a wide range of the under-sized and some standard-sized sepia postcards were issued of Capetown Castle. None are particularly attractive cards, nor are they printed to high quality.


Pre-WW2 condition Capetown Castle under-sized official postcard with brown masts
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Pre-WW2 Capetown Castle under-sized official postcard
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Pre-WW2 Capetown Castle under-sized official postcard
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Pre-WW2 Capetown Castle official postcard
Standard-sized version of the image above, with different text

CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Pre-WW2 Capetown Castle under-sized official postcard, although not posted until 1952
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Pre-WW2 real photo card of Capetown Castle - published by O.T.C. but posted at sea in 1948
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.ukCAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Post-WW2 Capetown Castle under-sized official postcard with white masts
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk






Capetown Castle Commercial Postcards

Marvellous Terence J.McNally postcard ref.236 of Capetown Castle at Cape Town
One of my favourite liner cards of all time

CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Harvey Barton postcard ref.E1R of Capetown Castle at Southampton with a Seaspeed hovercraft
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



O.T.C. postcard of Capetown Castle  - probably sold on board
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.ukCAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Dearden & Wade postcard ref.674 of Capetown Castle
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



O.W.Hoffman postcard of Capetown Castle
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Photo-Precision postcard 2893 of Capetown Castle
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Photochrom postcard of Capetown Castle
Uses the same image as the card above

CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Harold Jordan postcard U.2 of Capetown Castle
Uses the same image as the card above

CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk








Capetown Castle Ephemera

A selection of Union-Castle items from a trip taken on Capetown Castle from Southampton in June 1951. My thanks to Lorna J.Clarke for making this material available to me.


 Capetown Castle passenger list for Voyage 70 from Southampton on 7th June 1951 - Download complete document as PDF File (4.4 MB)
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle Dinner menu for 15th June 1951 - Download PDF File (475 KB)
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.ukCAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle luncheon menu for 8th June 1951 - Download PDF File (700 KB)
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle Entertainment Programme for Voyage 70 June 1951 - Download as a single PDF File (1.1 MB)
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.ukCAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle radio telegram
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle radio telegram envelope
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle writing paper
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk



Capetown Castle envelope
CAPETOWN CASTLE - www.simplonpc.co.uk
















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