The Athlone Castle was a passenger ship put into service in 1936 , which was used for the British shipping company Union-Castle Line in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and South Africa . She and her sister ship, the Stirling Castle, were speed record breakers and were among the largest ships of the Union-Castle Line built before World War II . In 1965 it was scrapped in Japan after almost 30 years of service .
history
The 25,564 GRT motor ship Athlone Castle was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast , Northern Ireland . The ship was 220.98 meters long and 25.15 meters wide and had a chimney, two masts and two propellers . The ship was powered by two ten-cylinder Burmeister & Wain diesel engines with an output of 24,000 bhp and a speed of 19.5 knots. The passenger accommodations were designed for 246 passengers in first class and 538 in cabin class. The ship was named after the castle of the same name in Athlone (Ireland). The Athlone Castle was the sister ship of the identical Stirling Castle (25,550 GRT), which was also launched on July 15, 1935 at Harland & Wolff.
On November 28, 1935, the Athlone Castle was launched and was christened by Alice, Countess of Athlone . The ship was completed on May 13, 1936. On May 22, 1936, the Athlone Castle in Southampton made her maiden voyage to Cape Town , where she arrived on June 7. When she arrived in Cape Town on April 14, 1937, she had covered the distance in the new record time of 13 days and 51 minutes. On November 5, 1937, the Athlone Castle was the first mail ship to call at East London . On December 27, 1940, she was requested as a troop transport . In November 1942 she took part in the Africa campaign. In the six years in which she served in the war, she carried a total of 148,113 people.
In 1946 she was used for two trips to repatriate troops to Australia and one to Singapore . On September 17, 1946, she was handed over to Belfast for repairs. In May 1947 the Athlone Castle returned to the mail service of the Union-Castle Line and in the following years drove from England to South Africa as before the war. She left Cape Town for the last time on July 23, 1965. It was then taken out of service after almost 30 years. On August 16, 1965 ran from Southampton to Japan and arrived on September 13, 1965 in Kaohsiung . There it was scrapped by the China Steel Corporation .
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