Llanstephan Castle
 As HMS Llandovery Castle during World War II (undated).
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The RMS Llanstephan Castle was a 1914 passenger steamer that was used by the British shipping company Union-Castle Line in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and South Africa . She survived both world wars and remained in service until 1952.
history
In April 1912 the British shipping company Union-Castle Line was bought by the businessman and politician Owen Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant (1853-1937) and integrated into the Royal Mail empire. With Philipps as the new chairman of the Union-Castle Line, a new ten-year postal contract was signed and two new ships were ordered to be used in the Royal East African Service from London to East Africa via the Suez Canal . This was to compete with Adolph Woermann's German East Africa Line . Philipps was a Welshman and insisted that both ships be named after Welsh castle ruins. There were Llandovery Castle in Llandovery (Welsh Llanymddyfri ) and Llansteffan Castle at Llansteffan (Welsh Llanstephan ) in Carmarthenshire selected as the name carrier.
The first ship, the Llanstephan Castle (11,348 GRT), was built at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. in Govan and was launched on August 29, 1913. The identical sister ship , the Llandovery Castle (I) (11,423 GRT), was built at the Barclay, Curle and Company shipyard in the Whiteinch district of Glasgow and was launched on September 3, 1913. In February 1914 the Llanstephan Castle was completed.
The 152.55 meter long and 19.29 meter long ship had a chimney, two masts, two propellers and could reach a top speed of 14 knots (25.9 km / h). The passenger accommodations were designed for 213 passengers in the first, 116 in the second and 100 in the third class; the crew consisted of 250 people. Immediately after its completion, the Llanstephan Castle left on her maiden voyage from London to East and South Africa . When she arrived in Zanzibar on her second voyage and received reports that the German cruiser Königsberg was nearby, she returned directly to Durban and was then transferred to the passenger and mail service from England via the West African coast to South Africa .
The ship provided this service until 1917, when it was used as a troop transport in the North Atlantic as part of the Liner Acquisition Theme (steam acquisition program) . After the end of the war, the Llanstephan Castle was again integrated into the South Africa service until it was used exclusively for the East Africa service in 1920. In 1922 the steamer was integrated into the new round-Africa service and stopped on this route in the ports of Naples , Genoa , Suez , Aden , Mombasa , Tanga , Dar es Salaam , Beira , Lourenço Marques , Durban , East London and Cape Town before he started his return journey via West Africa .
In 1938 the company switched from burning coal to oil. The Llanstephan Castle remained in service even after the outbreak of World War II . In August 1940 she brought 300 children from Liverpool to Cape Town for the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) and in August 1941 she sailed as the lead ship of the Dervish convoy , the first Allied Northern Sea escort , with armaments for the Soviet Union and returned to Arkhangelsk with 200 Polish ones Fly back. Then the ship was sent to the Far East to be used as a troop transport in the Burma campaign. In 1944 it was integrated into the Royal Indian Navy and in 1945 it was assigned to the Landing Ship Infantry of the Landing Craft Assault (LCA).
In 1947 the Llanstephan Castle was overhauled and again sent to the Africa service with a passenger capacity of 231 First Class and 198 Tourist Class. After the Union-Castle Line put newer, modern ships such as the Bloemfontein Castle (18,400 GRT, 1950) or the Kenya Castle (19,904 GRT, 1952) into service, the Llanstephan Castle was withdrawn from service in 1952. It was sold to the British Iron and Steel Corporation for demolition and arrived on March 1, 1952 in Newport (Wales), where it was scrapped.