RMS Walmer Castle

For other ships with the same name, see Walmer Castle (ship).

RMS Walmer Castle
History
United Kingdom
NameWalmer Castle
Owner Union-Castle Line
BuilderHarland & Wolff, Belfast
Launched6 July 1901
Completed20 February 1902
Out of service1930
FateBroken up at Blyth in 1932
NotesSouthampton - Cape Town service
General characteristics
Tonnage12,546 GRT
Length570 ft. 6in.
Beam64 ft 4 in (19.61 m)
Installed power1,200 nhp
Propulsion
  • As built:
  • Steel Screw Steamer
  • 2 Quadruple expansion engines
  • 2 × Steam 4 cylinder (28, 39.75, 57.5, 82 x 60in), 2 Screws
SpeedCruising: 17.5 kn (32 km/h; 20 mph)
Capacity
  • As built:
  • unk. first class passengers
  • unk. second class passengers
  • unk. third class passengers

The RMS Walmer Castle was a Royal Mail Ship of the Union-Castle Line in service between London, England and Cape Town, South Africa between 1902 and 1930. She was the second of three ships by this name. Her service was interrupted in 1917 when she was requisitioned by the government to serve as a troop transport, transporting troops from South Africa and later in the North Atlantic, painted in a camouflaged dazzle scheme. In 1919, she made two voyages between Liverpool and New York before returning to her mail run.

Among her notable passengers were poet Rudyard Kipling and politician Lord Gladstone, the first Governor General of South Africa. Kipling traveled the Union-Castle line twenty times. Lord Alfred Milner and his wife Violet traveled from England to South Africa aboard the Walmer Castle in 1924.[1][2][3]

She was retired and replaced by the refrigerated ship Winchester Castle in 1930.[4]

  1. ^ Marlowe, pg. 361
  2. ^ O’Brien, pgs. 383-384
  3. ^ Cecil, pgs. 305-308
  4. ^ Hodson, Norman, "The Race To The Cape", pg. 43