page_title: Union-Castle Line
section_title: Union-Castle Line
hierarchical_section_title: Union-Castle Line / Union-Castle Line
caption_attribution_description: English: The steamer Kenilworth Castle was a passenger ship built by Harland and Wolff, launched 15 December 1903 and completed 19 May 1904 for Union-Castle Line.
context_page_description: The Union-Castle 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.
  It merged with Bullard King and Clan Line in 1956 to form British & Commonwealth Shipping, and then with South African Marine Corporation in 1973 to create International Liner Services, but maintained its separate identity throughout. Its shipping operations ceased in 1977.
context_section_description: Union-Castle named most of their ships with the suffix "Castle" in their names; the names of several inherited from the Union Line were changed to this scheme (for example, Galacian became Glenart Castle) but others (such as Galeka) retained their original name. They were well known for the lavender-hulled liners with red funnels topped in black, running on a rigid timetable between Southampton and Cape Town. Every Thursday at 4pm a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Southampton bound for Cape Town. At the same time, a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Cape Town bound for Southampton.  In 1922 the line introduced its Round Africa service, a nine-week voyage calling at twenty ports en route.  Alternate sailings travelled out via the Suez Canal and out via West Africa.
  The combined line was bought by Royal Mail Line in 1911, but continued to operate as Union-Castle. Many of the line's vessels were requisitioned for service as troop ships or hospital ships in the First World War, and eight were sunk by mines or German U-boats. The Royal Mail Line ran into financial difficulties in the 1930s, culminating in the prosecution of its director Lord Kylsant, and Union-Castle Line became an independent company again with Vernon Thomson as Managing Director. Many vessels were again requisitioned in the Second World War. Three – Dunnottar Castle, Carnarvon Castle, Dunvegan Castle became armed merchant cruisers. Pretoria Castle (1939) was also first requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser, but later served as an escort carrier.
  After the war the line made good use of its three ships converted to troop transports to facilitate carrying the vast number of emigrants seeking new lives in East and South Africa.  When they ran out of berths the line set up its own internal travel agency to book passages on other lines and even air services.  The mail service to South Africa, curtailed during hostilities, recommenced with the sailing of Roxburgh Castle from Southampton on 2 January 1947.
caption: Kenilworth Castle was built in 1904, was a passenger ship liner[5]
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