The Pendennis Castle was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast, and launched in 1957. She was the first Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company ship fitted with stabilisers, and carried 197 first class and 473 tourist class passengers.
She was built for the Southampton to South Africa mail and passenger service, and departed on her first voyage on 1st January 1959. After only 17 years with Union-Castle she made her last voyage back from South Africa on 27th May 1976, a victim of the new and much faster service offered by the airlines.
I joined the Merchant Navy as a 16 year old late in 1971, and worked onboard Pendennis Castle for 8 round trips, and had an amazing time. I delivered telegrams, made tea for the first class passengers, served in the restaurants, and even handed out the rolls of streamers for the passengers to throw as we departed from port. There were so many that it sometimes seemed as if we were tied to the shore. Of course this tradition has long gone, due to environmental issues.
There were 3 Union-Castle and 2 Safmarine ships in the fleet on this run during the early 1970’s: –
- Pendennis Castle
- Windsor Castle
- Edinburgh Castle
- S.A. Vaal (formerly Transvaal Castle)
- S.A. Oranje (formerly Pretoria Castle)
The round trip used to take 38 days, and the itinerary was as follows – Southampton, Madeira (some voyages), Las Palmas, Cape Town (1 night in port), Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban (2 nights in port), East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town (3 nights in port), Las Palmas, Madeira (some voyages), Southampton. Each ship would then be in Southampton for 11 days while all the fruit and other cargo was offloaded, and the new cargo bound for South Africa was loaded. They would set sail again at 1 pm on a Friday, 7 weeks to the day they left on the previous voyage. Click on the following link to view the Fares & Sailings for 1972 / 1973 brochure on my Facebook page.
Union-Castle also operated a cruise liner from 1964 to 1974, which was the 20,750 grt Reina del Mar. She carried 1,074 passengers in one class.
After leaving the merchant navy in 1973, it was to be another 24 years before I went on my first cruise. We decided to book a week on Thomson’s Island Breeze, and couldn’t believe it when visiting the bridge, when we were told that back in the 1970’s the ship had been called the S.A. Vaal as I had seen her in Cape Town on every one of my voyages on Pendennis Castle.
Although I have lots of memorabilia from my time at sea, none of the photos are that clear, which is why I have taken a photo of a model of Pendennis Castle to use at the top of this page. Over the coming months I will add details of menus, prices etc from my time at sea.
- Pendennis Castle Dinner Menu from 5th September 1972
- Passenger Fares for Pendennis Castle in 1972
- Pre-Voyage Information for Union Castle
- Windsor Castle Breakfast Menu from 15th October 1973
My love of the sea has turned full circle, as I am now working for myself as a cruise specialist, helping people to have a fantastic cruise, by choosing the right ship for them. In February 2016 my wife and I went to Cape Town for a week, the first time I had been back for over 43 years, and we had a fantastic time. Click on the following link to see my photos and videos of Cape Town.
If anyone reading this has any memories of the Pendennis Castle, or the other ships mentioned above, I would love to hear from you. The pictures below are of some items I have collected over the last few years, and I would like to say a special thank you to John Foster, who telephoned me out of the blue recently. He had been sorting through some things and came across a couple of small spirit measures with Pendennis Castle on them. He therefore decided to research them on the web, and came across this particular page, and phoned me to ask if I would like to have them to add to my other items, and he then posted them to me. “Thank You John”.
Pendennis Castle Playing Cards Pendennis Castle Playing Card Pendennis Castle Matchbox
Pendennis Castle Matchbook Pendennis Castle Matchbook Pendennis Castle Matchbox
Pendennis Castle Ashtray Pendennis Castle Spirit Measures Merchant Navy Discharge Book – aged 16
Call Ian Warren at GoCruise with Ian on 01455821770 or 08002922850
