The UK Passenger Ship Fleet of 1967

 

Page 10: Fleets U-W

 

 

This is the last in a series of ten pages devoted to postcards of the complete UK Passenger Fleet of 1967. It is based on the fleet lists of Colin Worker's book The World's Passenger Ships, published by Ian Allen in that year. 1967 was the the end of an era for British passenger ships, since it was the last year that the famous Cunard Queens sailed together across the Atlantic. In 1967, there was still a substantial fleet of British ocean liners and cross-channel packets, and the purpose-built cruise ships and multi-purpose car ferries that would change the shape of passenger shipping were largely still to come. The availability of such an excellent work of reference, plus the interest of the year, makes it a most suitable one to survey. I have relied on Colin Worker's book for selecting the ships to include, thereby omitting many vessels under 1000 gross tons.

 

 

1967 UK Passenger Fleet Pages:-

Letters:- A-Bl, Br-Bu, Ca-Cu, D-G, Isle, M, N-O, P-R, S-T, U-W

 

Companies on this Page:-

Union Castle Line

Wallasey Corporation Passenger Transport

 

Associated Pages:-

Ferry Postcards

Cruise Ship Postcards

Ocean Liner Postcards

Simplon Postcards Home Page

 

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Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co.Ltd.

 

 

Capetown Castle (1938)

 

Union-Castle Line official card of Capetown Castle.

 

Union-Castle Line official card of Capetown Castle.

 

Union-Castle Line official card of Capetown Castle.

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of Capetown Castle near Capetown (s/n: 236).

 

 

 

 

 

Edinburgh Castle (1948)

 

Union-Castle Line official card of Edinburgh Castle.

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of Edinburgh Castle at Capetown (s/n: 237).

 

 

 

 

 

Kenya Castle

(Union-Castle: 1952-67)

 

Kenya Castle was completed in 1952 for the Union-Castle Line round Africa service by Harland & Wolff, Belfast. The second of three sisters built 1951-52, the others being Rhodesia Castle and Braemar Castle. In 1967 Kenya Castle was sold to Chandris and renamed Amerikanis.

 

Union-Castle Line official card with original funnel.

 

Unidentified Union-Castle Line official card of one of the three sisters.

 

Union-Castle Line official card with modified funnel.

 

 

 

 

Pendennis Castle (1958)

 

Union-Castle Line official card of Pendennis Castle.

 

 

 

 

 

Rhodesia Castle (1951)

 

 

 

 

 

Reina del Mar (1956)

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of Reina Del Mar leaving Capetown (s/n: 415).

 

 

 

 

 

S.A.Oranje (1962)

 

 

 

 

S.A.Vaal (1962)

 

S.A.Vaal is included here because in 1967 she was still British flagged and under Union-Castle management. There is a complete history of this ship on this link.

 

The Transvaal Castle was launched in 1961 by John Brown & Co, Clydebank. She was delivered to Union-Castle Line, and served on their route to South Africa from Southampton from 1962. She remained in Union-Castle colours only until 1966, when she was transferred to the South African Marine Corp (UK), remaining on the same service under the British flag, with Union-Castle crew and management as S.A.Vaal. In 1969 she was transferred to the South African flag.

 

S.A.Vaal was withdrawn in Southampton on October 10th, 1977 and sold to Carnival Cruise Line, who rebuilt her in Japan with extra decks, almost doubling the passenger capacity. The external appearance was not spoilt, however, and she has remained the handsome ship of Union-Castle days. Internally, the public rooms were much changed from the traditional liner, as the Carnival postcards below show. She returned to service in 1978 as Festivale, on Caribbean cruises in partnership with ex-Canadian Pacific liners Mardi Gras and Carnivale, revolutionising the cruise industry. Page 2 shows postcards from the Carnival era.

 

Following the delivery of purpose-built cruise ships to Carnival, she was sold to Dolphin Cruise Line who renamed her IslandBreeze. She was chartered to UK holiday company Thomson during the late 1990s, and passed to Premier cruises with the rest of the Dolphin ships. IslandBreeze was later renamed Big Red Boat III. On 4th June 2003 Big Red Boat III (sailing as Big Boat) steamed from Freeport enroute to the shipbreakers at Alang, India, via Gibraltar. She had the sad distinction of being the first Carnival Cruise liner to be scrapped.

 

 

J.Arthur Dixon card of S.A.Vaal (s/n: SS.6295.

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of S.A.Vaal near Capetown (s/n: 408).

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of S.A.Vaal leaving Capetown (s/n: 318).

 

 

 

 

 

Windsor Castle (1960)

 

Union-Castle Line official card of Windsor Castle.

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of Windsor Castle at Capetown (s/n: 173).

 

Terence J.Mcnally, Capetown, card of Windsor Castle (s/n: 251).

 

 

 

 

 

Wallasey Corporation Transport Department

 

Royal Iris (1951)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other pages in this series:- A-Bl, Br-Bu, Ca-Cu, D-G, Isle, M, N-O, P-R, S-T, U-W

Cruise Ship Postcards - Ferry Postcards - Ocean Liner Postcards

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