RMS Dunottar Castle

The RMS Dunottar Castle was built at Govan Shipyards in 1889 by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. for the Castle Line, passing to the Union Castle Line in 1900. This steam ship became famous in the 1890s for reducing the voyage time from Southampton, England, to Cape Town, South Africa, from 42 days to 17 days and 20 hours. In 1894 she grounded for two tides near the Eddystone Lighthouse. She had a refit in 1897 when the funnels were heightened, the yards were removed and she was given a wheelhouse.

Troop ship
In November 1899, the Dunottar Castle was requisitioned as a troop ship during the Second Boer War. She carried General Redvers Buller and 1,500 troops to Cape Town for Boer War duties and on the following voyage carried Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. During the war, she made frequent trips between England and the Cape Colony and carried some of the most famous Boer War warriors of the time, including two famous scouts, Major Frederick Russell Burnham and Col. Robert Baden-Powell, as well as a young war correspondent for the Morning Post by the name of Winston Churchill.

In 1904, the Dunottar Castle was laid up at Netley in Southampton Water, but by 1907 she was being chartered to the Panama Railroad Co. for their New York to Colon (Panama Canal) service. In 1908 she was chartered to Sir Henry Lunn Ltd for cruises to Norway and the Mediterranean, and in 1911 she took guests to the Delhi Durbar of King George V.

Union Castle became part of the Royal Mail Group in 1912, and the Dunottar Castle was sold to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1913 as the Caribbean. In 1914, the HMS Caribbean was requisitioned for World War I, initially as a troopship to bring soldiers from Canada to Europe and later as an Armed Merchant Cruiser. But after it was found that she was unsuitable to carry gun mountings, she was converted into a dockyard workers accommodation ship on May 1915.

Loss
The Caribbean set sail for Scapa Flow on 24 September 1915, but foundered at noon on 26 September, about 35 mi south of Cape Wrath, Scotland. Several ships were despatched to assist when her SOS message was received, but most were obliged to turn back due to the poor weather. However, some trawlers from Stornoway and the destroyer HMS Birkenhead managed to reach the scene. An attempt by the Birkenhead to place the Caribbean under tow failed, but most of the crew were rescued during the night.

The Caribbean sank early on 27 September, and the 15 crewmen still aboard lost their lives. The ensuing Court of Enquiry later blamed the ship's carpenter for being insufficiently familiar with the ship and for failing to shut all the scuttles - like most of the crew, he had joined the ship just 10 days earlier. The wreck was found in 2004, undisturbed except for fishing nets.

Second Boer War milestones

 * 3 July 1899, "at a few days" notice from Lord Wolseley, Col. Robert Baden-Powell leaves Southampton on the Dunottar Castle and arrives in Cape Town on 25 July. On 10 October 1899, the Second Boer War begins and three days later Baden-Powell is cut-off by the Boers in the Siege of Mafeking


 * 14 October 1899, Winston Churchill sails from Southampton aboard the Dunottar Castle and reaches Cape Town on 31 October.


 * November 1899, General Redvers Buller and 1,500 troops are carried by the Dunottar Castle to Cape Town to bolster British Army forces at the start of the Second Boer War.


 * 23 December 1899, Lord Roberts quickly departs Southampton on his way to South Africa on the Dunottar Castle where he will take command of the British forces in the Second Boer War. En route, Lord Kitchener joins Lord Roberts on the Dunottar Castle in Gibraltar to become the second in command.

"My dear Mr Rhodes,
 * July 1900, Winston Churchill and Frederick Russell Burnham, leave South Africa and return to England on 20 July as war heroes. On the voyage home, Churchill would write the following letter to Cecil Rhodes:

Abe Bailey has spoken to me about a plan to send a small private expedition from Cape Town to Cairo, and has suggested my coming with him. Of course I must think first of all of getting into the House of Commons, but I daresay the general election will be over before the expedition would start and were that the case I daresay I could get away.

I should personally like very much indeed to take part in such an interesting venture, and as I have to make my own living it would be a great advantage to me to do so, for what with a series of letters to a London newspaper and a good sized book to be published later, I should be able to earn a good deal of money.

Now it seems to me that this writing would help to attract public attention to the Cape to Cairo route and stimulate the interest taken in your railway scheme: so that perhaps you will think that our roads lie for some small distance in the same direction. If this be so and you would like me to go with this small expedition as Bailey's companion, will you write me - or have me written for I know you have many things to occupy you - a letter on the subject. This should reach me in about two months time, and I will then give you a definite answer without delay, for by then I shall know what prospect there is of my being able to play at `the cup and ball trick' (to quote your expression) in the House of Commons.

I lunched and dined with Frankie at Groote Schuur and much admired your beautiful house. I am sorry not to have seen you in South Africa, but the Boers interfered with most peoples' arrangements.

Yours sincerely, Winston S. Churchill. 12 July 1900"


 * In December 1900, her propeller shaft snapped and she had to be towed into Dakar. The Galician Castle went into service and in the same month went to Dakar to pick up passengers and mail from the disabled Dunottar Castle.


 * On 25 November 1901 the Dunottar Castle was disabled and towed into Dakar by the SS Runic (1900).