The Durham Castle was a passenger steamer put into service in 1904, which was used by the British shipping company Union-Castle Line in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and South Africa . She was taken over by the British Admiralty in 1939 and sank on January 26, 1940 off Scotland after being struck by a sea mine .
The ship
Illustration (undated)
The 8,217 GRT steamship Durham Castle was built at Fairfield Shipbuilders in Govan near Glasgow . The ship was 144.9 meters long and 17.2 meters wide and had a chimney, two masts and two propellers . It was propelled by quadruple expansion steam engines that made 969 nominal horsepower (NHP) and could accelerate the ship to a top speed of 14 knots. The passenger accommodations were designed for 220 passengers in first class and 250 in third class. The Durham Castle had two sister ships , which were also put into service in 1904. These were the Dunluce Castle (8,114 GRT), which was built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast and the Dover Castle (8,271 GRT), which was launched at Barclay, Curle and Company .
The Durham Castle was launched on December 17, 1903, was completed in February 1904 and was launched on March 23, 1904 on her maiden voyage from London to South Africa. In 1910 it was moved to the Mombasa route via the Cape of Good Hope . During the First World War , the Durham Castle remained in passenger traffic and was not used as an auxiliary cruiser or the like. On the return voyages to England, however, she had troops on board that were to be brought to the front. In June 1918, the Durham Castle was in the same convoy accompanied by several destroyers as the Kenilworth Castle when it collided with the destroyer Rival during an evasive maneuver .
From 1931 the ship sailed on the East Africa route via the Suez Canal . In 1939 the old ship was sold for demolition. The demolition work began on September 27, 1939 at Metal Industries in Rosyth . However, on October 2, dismantling was stopped because the British Admiralty wanted to use the Durham Castle as a living and supply ship at the Scapa Flow naval base . On January 26, 1940, however, on the way there she ran off Cromarty on a sea mine that had been laid by the German submarine U 57 and went down.
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