UNION, CASTLE AND UNION CASTLE LINES




Castle Line


CASTLE LINE

The founder of Castle Line, Donald Currie, was born in Greenock, Scotland on the 17th of September 1825 to James and Elizabeth (Nee Martin) Currie, he had five brothers and four sisters.

On leaving school at the age of 14 he joined his maternal uncle's firm of Hoyle, Martin & Co sugar refiners of Greenock. However Donald's passion was ships and he greatly envied his brother James who worked for David and Charles MacIver of the Burns, MacIver and Cunard concerns as an Engineer.

In 1842 Donald left his uncle's firm and moved to Liverpool and joined Cunard Line as a clerk in their Freight Department.

The Navigation Acts were bilaterally repealed by both Great Britain and America in 1849, the effect of the Act had stunted commerce and growth for years. This enabled Cunard to pick up freight in Continental ports and Donald Currie was charged with opening Freight Offices in Le Havre, Paris, Bremen and Antwerp. This was to take up five years of Curries' life but the knowledge and experience were to stand him in good stead later in his career. Currie returned to Liverpool in 1854 with his reputation greatly enhanced particularly in North Atlantic shipping. At the age of thirty-seven Currie purchased a controlling interest in the Leith, Hull and Hamburg Steam Packet Company and on the death of its elderly Manager his brother James resigned from MacIver's and took charge. Currie himself resigned from Cunard and set up his own business at 48, Albany, Liverpool with a rather unimposing title head of Donald Currie & Co. Currie believed his future lay on the India trades and with the Suez Canal still seven years from completion ordered sailing ships only, the following year Stirling Castle, Warwick Castle, Roslin Castle and Pembroke Castle were all commissioned, all were built at the yard of Robert Napier & Sons of Glasgow.

One of the innovations which Currie introduced to his Fleet was that they adhered to a set of timetables for departures whether full of cargo or not, unprecedented in the age of sail, his ships were to become known as 'Curries' Calcutta Castles'. Currie moved his offices from Liverpool to 52 Lime Street, London in 1865 as most of the cargo for India emanated in the Pool of London. His ship Tantallon Castle broke the record for passage to Calcutta doing the trip in eighty days in 1868, on the way home she proved even faster posting a time of seventy-eight days for the homeward voyage. On the 17th of November, 1869 the Suez Canal opened and the new Liverpool and Hamburg Steamship Co was formed with Currie named as Manager. With the Canal a success Currie ordered two new ships from the Glasgow yard of Barclay Curle in 1871 they were the Dover Castle and the Walmer Castle.

It was towards the end of '71 that Donald Currie first met George H. Payne owner of the Cape and Natal Line, George Payne wanted to expand his operation of private mail ships and asked to charter two ships from Curries North Sea Fleet. The two ships chosen were the Iceland and Gothic, both were modified for the service, also extra bunker/food capacity were added to facilitate the carrying of twenty passengers. The only drawback to this sort of enterprise was that the ships were subject to delays with Royal Mail ships taking precedence consequently the mails carried on the private ships were one third the rate, only acceptable if one wasn't in a hurry. Unfortunately Currie and Payne met again in February of the following year when the latter announced that he couldn't raise the necessary funds but urged Currie to continue in the venture assuring him of its possible success. However this event didn't sour the relationship between the two men and George Payne was to become Curries' loading broker for the next fifteen years. On the 23rd of February Curries' first ship on the enterprise William Miller sailed for the Cape followed at fortnightly intervals by Marsdin, Warrior and Penguin all ships had been chartered in so Currie must have had considerable faith in George Payne's convictions.

In April Currie decided to place his newly constructed Dover Castle on the private mail service to the Cape but couldn't turn down a charter for the ship from Pacific Steam Navigation for a one off trip to South America, he was later to regret this decision as the ship caught fire near Coquimbo, Chile homeward bound and sank. Because of Dover Castle's charter Westmorland became the first Currie owned ship to sail for the Cape in the April and the following month Penguin broke the voyage time reducing it to twenty-four days and eighteen hours. The first Castle Line ship to arrive in Capetown was the Walmer Castle which had sailed from Dartmouth calling at Bordeaux before arriving at the Cape in October. During this year, 1872, the Company moved its Head Office to Fenchurch Street, London. In May of 1873 Windsor Castle reduced the passage time to the Cape to twenty-three days beating Penguin by nearly two days.

In 1876 the Castle Mail Packets Co Ltd was formed, a private company controlled by Currie, he appointed Anderson & Murison as agents in Capetown with James Murison being given Power of Attorney in all Castle's business. In the mid year Birthday Honours Queen Victoria awarded Donald Currie a CBE for services to shipping. Windsor Castle was wrecked at the entrance to Capetown Bay on the 19th of October when she ran aground on Dassen Island fortunately with no loss life. Donald Currie entered Parliament in 1880 as member for Garth, Scotland and in the December the Transvaal became independent of Cape Colony after the first Boer War. On the 15th of July 1881 the Castle Mail Packet Co Ltd went public and five days later Donald Currie became a knight.

DRUMMOND CASTLE



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Built: 1881 by John Elder & Co, Glasgow.
Tonnage: 3, 537g, 2, 381n.
Engine: Single Screw, 2 Cylinder Compound Inverted, 500 NHP. 12 Knots.
Passengers: 120 First Class, 100 Second Class, 160 Third class, 103 Crew.
Keel laid in 1880, delivered in February 1881.

Drummond Castle was built by the Drummonds from Stobhall in 1491 and is famous for its gardens.

She was converted to triple expansion in 1888 and had new boilers fitted, her funnel height was also increased, she also had cold chambers and carried the first cargo of Cape peaches in 1892. On the 28th of May 1896 she sailed from the Cape under the command of Captain W.W. Pierce. On the 16th of June at night in poor visibility while on course she was caught in a tide race and struck Pierres Vertes Reef, Molene Island off Ushant. The Captain unfortunately thought that she was aground and ordered that the boats be made ready but did not give the order to abandon ship. The ship however was not aground and had overshot the reef suffering a long gash from keel to waterline. She sank within four minutes taking with her 142 passengers and 102 crewmembers including the Captain. Only two passengers and one crewmember survived the sinking with only 53 bodies being recovered. Alphonse Bertillon of the French Criminal Investigation Department was able to identify 51 of the 53 bodies and was later awarded a gold medal by Queen Victoria for his assistance. Thirty-three years later her hull was discovered by the Italian salvage vessel Artigilio whilst was looking for P & O's Egypt which had been carrying bullion when she sank.

In 1882 both Castle and Union were faced with ever increasing competition leading to Sir Donald Currie forming the South African Shipping Conference in 1883. Other companies in the Conference included International Line, Aberdeen Line, Clan Line, South African Line and Natal Direct Line, this Conference was to be of immense benefit when the South African economy entered a slow down which was to last for four years. Castle took delivery of Pembroke Castle this year and Sir Donald organised a shake down cruise to which he invited many dignitaries including the poet Tennyson and Prime Minister of the day Mr. Gladstone. Unfortunately for Mr. Gladstone the ship made an unscheduled call at Copenhagen for which the Prime Minister was severely rebuked by Queen Victoria for leaving British Territorial Waters without her permission. Sir Donald sold his sailing fleet in 1884 with a stipulation that all the ships names must be changed as he wished to retain the names for future tonnage, also this year no dividend was paid. The following year Castle opened its office in Capetown and named Lachlan MacLean as its manager. In 1887 tickets between Castle and Union became interchangeable, gold was discovered in the Rand and Grantully Castle and Norham Castle represented the Company at Queen Victoria's Spithead Review.

On the 23rd of January 1889 the Holland direct service commenced with Warwick Castle making the inaugural voyage, she sailed from Gravesend calling at Flushing before proceeding to the Cape. On starting up the service Castle was granted the contract to carry Dutch mails to South Africa. Dunnottar Castle entered service in 1890 and the following year Southampton replaced Dartmouth as the embarkation port for the mails, the Castle and Union sailings now alternated. In 1893 the seven year joint contract was signed I've purposely left out all the previous contract signings as they are covered in Union's history. Union and Castle inaugurated a joint cargo service to New York calling at other East Coast ports as freight demanded. At the 1894 General Meeting a profit was announced but no dividends were paid the Company preferring to hold monies back to offset Fleet depreciation. It was stated at the meeting that with South Africa trade on the upgrade again shareholders were well placed to see their investments grow. The Tantallon Castle attended the opening of the Kiel Canal in June 1895 and tragically the Drummond castle sank in 1896 with tremendous loss of life.

DUNVEGAN CASTLE


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Built: 1896 by Fairfield S.B. and E. Co. Govan..
Tonnage: 5, 958g, 3, 428n.
Engine: Single Screw, Triple Expansion, 1, 152 NHP. 15 Knots.
Passengers: 200 First Class, 400 Third class.
Launched beginning 1896, entered service July same year.

Dunvegan Castle is located on the Isle of Skye.

In 1900 she became part of the combined Union - Castle Fleet and her yards were removed from the foremast at the same time. She attended Edward VII's Spithead Review with Scot and they shared between them both Houses of Parliament. At refit in 1910 she underwent some structural changes which included partial decking over the aft well and repositioning of the aft lifeboats. She was laid up briefly in 1914 but in the August along with Norman landed troops at Le Havre who were part of the British Expeditionary Force. As the Company's larger ships were requisitioned for War Service she was placed once more on the mail service but in the October of 1915 she was converted for use as a Hospital ship with 400 beds. On the 20th of April 1916 she returned to Union - Castle but under Government control and in 1917 she carried General Smuts from South Africa to join Britain's War Cabinet.

She was charted to Cunard in 1918 and again for the French Government to repatriate French Prisoners of war from Germany in 1919. With her commercial service over she was laid up at Netley, Southampton in 1921 and two years later sold to Schwitzer - Oppler for breaking in Germany.

In October of 1899 the South African Boer War commenced, the Dunottar Castle departed England carrying Sir Redvers Buller and Staff to the Cape followed on the 20th by Harlech Castle, Lismore Castle and Roslin Castle which all sailed from Southampton carrying troops bound for the conflict. Kildonan Castle and Kinfauns Castle, the last two ships completed for Castle before the merger, both entered service. Lord Roberts newly appointed as Commander in Chief of the British Army in South Africa travelled to the Cape on Dunnottar Castle in the December. This year saw the signing of a new ten-year mail contract with one vital difference which was to lead to the formation of the Union - Castle Line.

KILDONAN CASTLE


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Built: 1899 by Fairfield S.B. and E. Co. Glasgow.
Tonnage: 9, 652g, 5, 105n.
Engines: Twin Screw, 2 x Quadruple Expansion, 1, 663 NHP. 17 Knots.
Passengers: 250 First Class, 175 Second Class, 140 Third class or 1, 500 Troops.
Launched 22nd August, Completed October for trooping Duties.

Located on the Isle of Arran Kildonan was the hunting seat of the Scottish Kings when Arran was Crown Property.

She was rushed into service with much of her accommodation incomplete and made her maiden voyage to the cape carrying 3, 000 troops, you will note that this was twice the number for which she was designed. In 1901 she returned to Fairfields for the accommodation to be finished and emerged with significant passenger number differences, First Class 250, Second Class 200 and Third Class 136.

In the October of 1914 she carried arms and ammunition to South Africa for the Union's Army fight against Secessionists in the Rand which had started in the Rand in 1913 and now threatened Johannesburg. On the 6th of October 1915 she was commissioned as a Hospital ship with 603 beds and was decommissioned six months later. She was converted for use as an Armed Merchant Cruiser in the July and was commissioned into the Royal Navy on the 21st of August and joined the 10th Cruiser Squadron based at Glasgow.

She took Viscount Milner to Murmansk on the 17th of January 1917 who headed the British Military Mission which attempted to stop Russia signing a non-aggression pact with Germany. The Brest - Litovsk Treaty was signed on the 2nd of March the same day that the mission arrived back at Scapa Flow. In April she returned once more to convey work in the North Atlantic and in December of 1918 paid off and commenced repatriation duties. In 1919 the Allies became involved in the Russian Revolution on the side of the White Russians and Kildonan Castle was the last ship to sail from Russia carrying troops after the Communists were victorious.

After refurbishment she returned once more to the mail run and remained as such until being replaced by Carnarvon Castle in 1926. She was then laid up in reserve and except for a brief spell from January to May of 1930 remained so. She spent her remaining days at Netley before being sold for scrap and was broken at Stavanger in Norway.