SS Dunvegan Castle
From Our Contribution
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | SS Dunvegan Castle |
| Owner | Castle Mail Packets Co. Ltd. - D. Currie & Co., London |
| Builder | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd |
| Yard number | 389 |
| Launched | 14 Apr 1896 |
| Completed | 1896 |
| In service | 1896 |
| Out of service | 1924 |
| Fate | Broken up 18 Jan 1924 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | passenger liner |
| Tonnage | 5,958 tons |
| Length | 450.0 ft |
| Beam | 50.9 ft |
| Depth | 31.7 ft draft 23.7 ft |
| Propulsion | sigle screw |
Contents
Remarks
Built for the Castle Mail Packets Co. Ltd, London, and later became a part of the Union Castle Line. In 1902 she transported the Australian Cricket team to England. From 1904 until 1910 she was laid up, making occasional pleasure voyages to Norway and in the Mediterranean as required until a new London to Durban route was opened up in 1910.
Requisitioned two days after war was declared in August 1914, she served as a troopship, and was for a time a makeshift hospital ship in the Dardanelles until August 1916 when she returned to civilian use. Requisitiond under the Liner Requisition Scheme in 1917, in 1918 she undertook two voyages across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York for Cunard and in 1919 was chartered to the French Government for two voyages from Copenhagen to Cherbourg to repatriate French prisoners of war from Northern Germany.
She was laid up at Netley in 1921 and sold in 1923 to Schwitzer & Oppler for breaking up in Kiel, Germany during 1924.
Soldiers carried
Alexandria to England 13 - 23 Sep 1915
England to Fremantle 4 July - 15 August 1919
- Harry Hodgson
- John Donaldson Patterson and wife Elizabeth from Durban 31 July