The Stirling 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 Athlone Castle were speed record breakers and were among the largest ships built before the Second World War on the Union-Castle Line. It was scrapped in Japan in 1966 .
history
The Stirling Castle at sail from Southampton, June 1962
The 25,550 GRT motor ship Stirling Castle was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast , Northern Ireland and was launched on July 15, 1935. The ship was 223.72 meters long and 25.29 meters wide and had a chimney, two masts and two propellers . The ship was powered by two ten-cylinder diesel engines from Burmeister & Wain , which made 24,000 bhp (Brake Horsepower) and enabled a speed of 19.5 knots. There was space on board for 246 passengers in first class and 538 in cabin class. The ship was named after the castle of the same name in Scotland. The Stirling Castle was the sister ship of the structurally identical Athlone Castle (25,564 GRT), which was also launched on November 28, 1935 at Harland & Wolff.
After its completion on January 29, 1936, the Stirling Castle ran on February 7, 1936 in Southampton on her maiden voyage to Cape Town . On September 4, 1936, she set a new speed record on this route when she reached Cape Town after traveling 13 days, six hours and 30 minutes. The previous record had been held by Scot of the predecessor shipping company Union Line since 1893 . On October 19, 1940, the Stirling Castle was requested as a troop transport with a capacity for 5,000 soldiers and drove among other things in WS convoys . In 1942 she was the flagship of the first convoy to leave Brazil after the United States declared war on the German Reich . From 1943 she ran from the United States and had over 6,000 men on board on one voyage. During its service life, the ship covered 505,000 nautical miles and transported 128,000 soldiers.
In October 1947 it was returned to the Union-Castle Line postal service and equipped with new passenger accommodation for 243 travelers in first class and 540 in tourist class. On November 30, 1965, she ran at the end of her last crossing in Southampton. In the following months she was still used for North Africa cruises until she left for Japan on February 1, 1966. On March 3, 1966, the ship arrived in Mihara , where it was scrapped shortly afterwards at Nichimen Kagaku Kogyo KK.
