OCEAN LINER RMS TRANSVAAL CASTLE "THE FRIENDLY SHIP" PROMOTIONAL FILM74392
This rare promotional film for the
RMS Transvaal Castle dates to the
1960s, and shows the ship on its way to
South Africa from
Southampton. RMS Transvaal Castle was a
British ocean liner built by
John Brown & Company at
Clydebank for the Union-Castle Line for their mail service between Southampton and
Durban. In 1966 she was sold to the
South Africa-based Safmarine and renamed
S.A. Vaal for further service on the same route.
Following cessation of the service between the UK and South Africa in
1977 the ship was sold to
Carnival Cruise Lines and rebuilt in
Japan as the cruise ship
SS Festivale, re-entering service in 1978. In
1996 she was sold to
Dolphin Cruise Line and renamed IslandBreeze. The vessel spent some of her time under Dolphin Cruise Line ownership on charter to
Thomson Cruises. In
1998 the ship was sold to
Premier Cruise Line and renamed
SS Big Red Boat III. Following the bankruptcy of Premier Cruise Line
2000,
Big Red Boat III was laid up until
2003 when she was sold to the scrappers in
Alang, India. The ship became The
Big Red Boat for her final voyage to the scrapyard.
RMS Transvaal Castle was the last in a series of three ships planned by the
Union-Castle Line in the
1950s as replacements for the company's oldest ships
RMS Arundel Castle,
RMS Carnarvon Castle and
RMS Winchester Castle.
Transvaal Castle was similar to but smaller than
Windsor Castle, built by
Cammell, Laird & Co. the previous year. At 32,697
GRT, she was the company's second-largest ship.
Transvaal Castle was launched at Clydebank on
17 January 1961 by
Lady Cayzer, wife of the chairman of
British & Commonwealth Shipping, and delivered to Union-Castle on
16 December 1961. Like Windsor Castle, she was fully air conditioned and was one of the first British built passenger ships to have a bulbous bow. However, the major
difference between the new ship and her fleetmates was that she was conceived as an experimental "hotel" ship, with all passenger accommodation in one class rather than the first and tourist split of the other mail ships. A further innovation was the use of female waiting staff, known as "stewardettes". These were later to be a feature of the other ships in the mail fleet, but the one class concept was restricted to this one ship, the others remaining two class to the end of their service.
Transvaal Castle set out on her maiden voyage from Southampton to Durban on
18 January 1962. In July
1965, the mail service was accelerated with the Southampton-Cape
Town voyage cut from 13½ days to 11½ days. The previous departure from Southampton at 4 PM on Thursday, every week was altered to 1 PM every Friday.
The Union-Castle/Safmarine joint mailship service declined heavily during the
1970s. This was due to a combination of adverse economic factors including the loss of earnings from high value cargoes, which were increasingly being carried in the more efficient, revolutionary new container ships. With the large increase in oil prices in
1973, the mail ship schedule was extended by one day to allow more economical steaming. After
Pendennis Castle was withdrawn in
June 1976 just two mailships remained on the route - Union-Castle's Windsor Castle and Safmarine's S.A. Vaal - in addition to Union-Castle's last cargo/passenger vessels
RMMV Good Hope Castle and RMMV
Southampton Castle (carrying just 12 passengers each) and other chartered cargo-only tonnage. The jointly owned passenger liner service ceased completely in October 1977, with the S.A.
Vaal being the last to arrive in Southampton on
10 October 1977.
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This film is part of the
Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the
USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit
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