RMS Transvaal Castle was a British ocean liner built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank for the UnionCastle Line for their mail service between Southampton and Durban. In 1966 she was sold to the South Africabased 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 Line and rebuilt in Japan as the cruise ship SS Festivale, reentering service in 1978.[5] In 1996 she was chartered to Dolphin Cruise Line and renamed IslandBreeze.[6] In 1998 the ship was sold to Premier Cruise Line,[7] which renamed her The Big Red Boat III.[3] Following the bankruptcy of Premier Cruise Line in 2000,[8] The Big Red Boat III was laid up until 2003 when she was sold to scrappers in Alang, India.[9] She was renamed 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 UnionCastle Line in the 1950s as replacements for the company's oldest ships RMS Arundel Castle, RMS Carnarvon Castle and RMS Winchester Castle. The Transvaal Castle was preceded by the RMS Pendennis Castle (delivered in 1958) and RMS Windsor Castle (delivered in 1960). Pendennis Castle was an enlarged Pretoria Castle from the same builder, Harland & Wolff, but after the UnionCastle/Clan Line merger of 1956, Clan Line management predominated and no further UnionCastle ships were ordered from the Belfast yard. 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 secondlargest 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 UnionCastle on 16 December 1961.[4] 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. This concept had been used in the three round Africa service ships of the Rhodesia Castle class built in 1951/2, but this was its first (and only) application to the mail fleet. 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.

The UnionCastle Line was a British shipping line that operated a fleet of passenger liners and cargo ships between Europe and Africa from 1900 to 1977. It was formed from the merger of the Union Line and Castle Shipping Line.
Windsor Castle, Pendennis Castle, Edinburgh Castle and two fast freighters. Additionally, the Transvaal Castle and Pretoria Castle.


Copyright G W Thomas 2017