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Dave Roderick The Capetown
Castle transported me to Liverpool England. We left NYC on Jan 17,
1944 and arrived in Liverpool on January 29, 1944. As I remember it,
on board was Headquarters Company, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th ID
and my 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Inf Reg.
Wim Koster
born at 8 Oct 1954 (in the Netherlands). Travelled with the Capetown
Castle 1962 from England to South Africa.
Peter Rolfe (RAF) sailed
in convoy on Capetown Castle leaving Liverpool on 5th November 1944
and arriving Port Said, Egypt on 22nd November. An accidental firing
of an AA gun on a nearby frigate (HMS Bligh K467) killed and wounded several
personnel on the Capetown Castle before it Liverpool.
Anne (Formerly Leeper) I
along with my mother and brother returned home to England from
Bombay June 1946. My mother and I were evacuated to India at the
start of the war and my brother was born in Poona. The Capetown
Castle was also carrying hundreds of British troops and sailed
through the Suez Canal stopping off in Naples.
Desmond & Elizabeth
Shannon along with our children, Barbara, Stephen, Maureen,
Jaqueline & Richard, we departed from Southampton on May 17th, 1962
for Capetown, South Africa.
R. P. Wigmore I travelled
from Bombay to Liverpool on the Capetwon Castle in 1946 as Leading
Aircraftsman.
Bob Ball I
joined her from Ingham 1942. A fine ship 27 knots troop-ship. We
sailed from UK without escort calling at Freetown-Ascension
Island-St Helena-Walvis Bay-Capetown-Durban-Aden. At Aden we took on
1000 of Rommels Afrika Korp, fine well disciplined troops, 800 other
ranks & 200 officers. Back to Durban to bunker and take on stores,
then down to Tristan da Cunha and the Falklands-Punta Arenas through
the Magellan Straits to Panama Canal on to New York where I had my
16th birthday and prisoners were off-loaded, up to Halifax to take
on Canadian troops who disembarked at Liverpool. A very interesting
trip, uneventful apart from being machine-gunned by a Focke-Wulfe
bomber off the coast of N.Ireland which made a mess of some upper
decks and the laundry sky-light, but no casualties.
John Shipman My
father, Ted Shipman, travelled from Durban, South Africa (depart 6th
Nov 1945) to Southampton I believe (arrived 27th Nov 1945). He was
returning to the UK after commanding the Central Flying School (S R)
RAF Norton where many pilots were trained as flying instructors.
Bill Gibbon My father,
Frank Gibbon, was the Chief Engineer on the Capetown Castle before
he came ashore in 1954. He was very proud of the ship, and had a
collection of photographs. I'm unsure of where they now are, but I
remember him showing me them when I was a young boy.
Gill Phillips nee
Wilton My father Herbert Wilton (Bert) travelled from Bombay
January 1946 to Southampton arriving in February 1946 - he was
leading aircraftsman RAF in Poona - and transported home by the
Capetown Castle. I have a diary of his thoughts about his voyage.
Name:
Edward Gillon McKay
b.1921
Hometown: Edinburgh
Regimen: Royal Artillery Maritime Regiment
Army Number: 108023. I travelled around the world on the Capetown
Castle via the following route: I manned an Oerlikon gun.
Liverpool
Durban South Africa
Bombay India (picked up time expired Australians and New Zealanders)
Australia (*meant to go to Ceylon, but stopped by mines/submarines,
re-
routed to Australia)
New Zealand
Panama Canal
Halifax
Liverpool
If you read this and served with me on this ship, please e-mail
S.Lanaway@titancreative.com
Loren D Auld
New York to Liverpool 1943
Frederick Baker Frederick
Charles Baker RAMC April 6 1942 from Southampton on route to India,
troop ship, then served in India and Burma. Left Southampton after
seeing his son, Fred junior, born at Weymouth on 3 April 1942.
Returned 1945.
Eric Osborne engine room. Had
a leading hand called Jumbo by god he was massive but a good boss.
The only way we could get ice-cream was when the stewards went past
the engine room door and with his hands covered in diesel he would
stick or fingers in the bowl of ice-cream and say I'll have that
one.
Allan Kirk Sailed
from Halifax to Scotland. Ship used as a troop ship transporting
RCAF airmen during the second world war.
Dan West My wife's uncle,
Sgt. Frank H. Hall, shipped out on the Cape Town Castle with the
22nd Infantry Regiment in Jan. of 1944. He was KIA on 20 November,
1944 in the Hurtgen Forest.
Alan Tonkin I
sailed from Mombasa to UK on Capetown Castle, Nov 11th to Dec 2nd
1945. As the war was over, it was great to sail at night with all
the lights on. I was a Leading Signalman RN, going to UK for
demobilisation.
Richard Broadhurst My
father boarded her on Tuesday 29th September 1942, after being
married on the Saturday. He was one of 300 cadets and 4000 troops to
join the R.I.A.S.C. I am compiling his journal of the journey which
took him to Bombay, arriving Tuesday 24th November 1942. If anyone
wants to contact me please do so
John Broadhurst
Ronald Rigg [Flying
officer] came home from Bombay - Arrived 1st April 1945.
Chester Ralph Lyons
Born: April 21, 1919, Private Regimental # G53218 Canadian Base
Ordinants Workshop. Departed from Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada in
early December, 1940 (left 1 minute after midnight on Sunday)
arrived in Liverpool, England 7 days later (on Saturday
approximately 6 p.m. evening). The Ordinates were responsible for
all types of repairs but were specifically trying to build tanks for
underwater purposes in the upcoming Europe Invasion to be based in
Bordon, England. There were over 4000 men on this journey. The ship
was so packed that there was hardly room to move. One of my
shipmates was Private Charlie Painter and we were lucky enough to
share a state room together. During our voyage the RMMV Capetown
Castle narrowly avoided a collision with a sister ship the Morrow
Castle. Apparently the Capetown Castle had a broken rutter cable. A
few years later when under the command of The 5th Division from
Canada I was on the Capetown Castle again going from Scotland to
Naples, Italy. During that time it was extremely dangerous to be on
the ship as there were many enemy submarines in the area that
followed us.
John Hofbauer with the 3rd Armour Division September 1943 Staton
Island to Liverpool.
Earl
Schommer 3rd Armoured Division sailed to England aboard the Cape
Town Castle.
Maureen Bridgett I
was 6 years old and sailed from Bombay to Southampton with my family
as my father was in the Royal Berkshires.
Walter Smedley
(Ordinary Seaman) b1921 April 23rd. Travelled from Liverpool c1941
with other Army and Navy personnel via Durban. Left Durban Christmas
Eve but can't remember exact route from there. Finished at Singapore
on 13th Jan 1942 but not on the Capetown Castle.
Russell Gale -
Immigrated from South Africa to Australia in 1965 as a 5 year old on
Capetown Castle
3202023
LAC Wigmore I sailed from Bombay to
Southampton in 1946.
Penelope Wyatt
Oliver My mother always used to tell
me that we sailed back to England from Bombay on the Capetown Castle
arriving home at the end of March 1945. I was only three or four
months old at the time, and apparently she was extremely worried as
a torpedo went off very close to us, and she felt that it may
well have severely ruined my hearing! However, everything turned
out fine and I've had no problems!! We went backwards and forwards
to India two or three more times following that trip, as my father
was firstly in the army out there during the war and then worked for
Burmah Shell. I will always remember those wonderful sea voyages,
the last one being when I was nine. My husband and I go on the
occasional cruises these days, but though fun, it is not the same.
3202023 LAC
Wigmore I sailed from Bombay to
Southampton in 1946.
http://paulwigmore.co.uk/
David
Chambers My father Edward Chambers of
Belfast Ireland, served as an engineer on the Cape Town Castle
before leaving the service around 1955 and emigrating to Australia
in 1956. He used to tell some great stories about his experiences
and exploits during those years.
Pat Blackman - I went out on the Capetown Castle as an assistant
steward. Left from Southampton on 14th December 1945 and went
through the Suez canal to Bombay. On the return trip we picked up a
load of Italian prisoners of war from north Africa and travelled to
Naples to let them off there. Then travelled home to Southampton.
Paul Wigmore
An RAF Photographer, I sailed in her from
Calcutta to Southampton in September 1946.
Derek Balman
The Capetown Castle transported me to Naples
Italy in March 1944. It was a fairly good trip considering the
times, I remember having secured a very good little number in the
catering dept during the trip. I fared pretty well as one can
imagine. Made some good friends with the crew.
Herbert (Bert) Wallace Clarkson (Chief
Petty Officer RN) Joined the Capetown Castle at Naples, as
transport back from two year duty on HMS Lookout. Returning home to
UK form redraft. Volunteered as acting gun crew for journey home to
UK, arrived Liverpool beginning of November 1944.
George Bowman I was third
engineer on board when explosion happened at Las Palmas
Patricia Popple
My father, Frank Spivey, Sapper with the Royal
Engineers, sailed from Algiers on 6 March 1944 on the Capetown
Castle, docking in Britain on 16 March for disembarkation leave
prior to sailing to Normandy on 6 June on the Kaida as stevedore
with 1013 Port Operating Company billeted at St Aubin sur Mer.
Earl G. Slater
of Goodlettsville, Tennessee – Sailed on the
Capetown Castle from New York Harbour on January 17, 1944 – arrived
in Liverpool, England, the afternoon of January 29, 1944. He was a
Staff Sergeant in the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the US Army 4th
Division. The Capetown Castle made the rough wintertime crossing in
the company of a huge convoy.
Salomon
NAHMANI From Tunisia to England 1943.
Joined the 2e DB of the Free French Forces.
William Cody
I sailed in her from Funchal, Madeira to
Southampton on August, 15, 1938 which was shortly after her
introduction on the Capetown run. Even to this day in October 2010
and my age of 85 years old, I still consider it as the most
attractive vessel in which I have sailed as a passenger. Even sailed
in the original Queen Elizabeth but it was during wartime and she
was rigged up as a Troop Ship. Ottawa, Canada.
Amanda
Olivier I was just nine years old, born in
Cape Town. My father decided that London was the place my two
brothers and I should be educated. So the end of 1955 we boarded the
Union Castle Line's Cape Town Castle and sailed for Southampton. We
left in glorious sunshine and arrived in thick fog. We couldn't even
see the dock. The great ship was a moving 5 star hotel and a magic
palace for me. On deck we were so high up that my friends waving
goodbye on the quayside were tiny and far away. The voyage took
eleven days and we spent Xmas and New Year on board. Crossing the
equator they followed tradition and dunked people in the swimming
pool and we had the fancy dress party for the children. One time we
were invited to sit at the captain's table and I was warned to
behave myself. I spent a lot of time watching the wake of the ship
and the convoy of seagulls. We stopped in Madeira and the island
boys dived off the ship for the coins we were invited to throw in
the water! I shall never forget the Cape Town Castle. It was the
only good part of leaving South Africa.
Wynne Worrod
I emigrated from UK to S. Africa on the
Capetown Castle on 1st May 1947. A wonderful voyage made even more
so by the food! Having just experienced five years of rationing, the
quantity and wonderful quality of all the meals was unbelievable! I
met my husband on board and we were married in Cape Town a year
later. We celebrated our Diamond Wedding in Natal, South Africa on
5th May 2008, with our 2 children and 5 grandchildren. So for me, a
very special ship! Wynne Worrod, Box 281 Hilton, 3245, Natal.
Mike
Greenspan I sailed from Cape Town on the
Capetown Castle in December 1966 after spending some months in
Rhodesia and Zambia. I met some super young people on the trip and
we stopped at St Helena and Madeira (on Christmas Eve). I was 23
years old and I felt that the world was at my feet. The trip was
wonderful and I have many happy memories of the time spent on that
superb ship.
Richard Oliver Dobson (b 1914).
Shortly before he died in 2000 my father recalled his experiences
during WW2. Almost the first thing he mentioned was travelling to
South Africa aboard the ‘ Capetown Castle ’ possibly from Liverpool.
He was a Corporal in the RAMC and told me that he was subsequently
shipped to Egypt aboard SS Khedive Ismail which was to be sunk with
great loss of life by the Japanese in 1944. Eventually he was
captured by the Germans on Crete in June 1941 and spent the rest of
the war in prison camps in Poland and what is now the Czech
Republic.
Michael Richard Dobson
Alison
Girvan (married name:Smith) Sailed from
Southampton to Cape Town to see grandparents 1966. With my mother,
father, two brothers and sister. What an experience for a nine year
old. Ship was epic for me. Memory of this experience is still so
strong and has nurtured my love of the sea and cruising.
Please
email
I am looking through my fathers scrap book and
he was a passenger 10.15 hrs Feb 20 1946 Bombay > Southampton. His
Name was 1203500 Cpl Clifford Allen Hudson W/OP (Air Force India
Form 1453) states
Mess Deck 83, Mess Table 63.
Paul Heuts
My father sailed on the Capetown Castle on
October 6, 1941 from Halifax to London. He arrived on October 17,
1941. He traveled with a group of Dutch army recruits, among whom
his friend Guido Schreve, who wrote Pierre Lalande: Special Agent
about his experiences during the war. In the book he describes the
journey, including an attack by German U-Boats that sunk another
boat in the convoy.
My late father, Arthur Stanley May
sailed on the Capetown Castle on 5
Sept 1941 from Auckland, New Zealand to England, via Halifax. He was
a recruit in the Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy. While in Halifax, he
turned 21 on 4 October 1941 and apparently celebrated this occasion
by jumping off a local bridge! I understand he may also have met a
lady named Mary Hart on this voyage. I am trying to find out as much
as I can about my father's war service as he rarely spoke about the
war. If you can help me with any memories of my father or Mary Hart,
please contact me.
David R. Dorough (Private, 4th
Infantry Division Medical Battalion Departed New York for England on
June 18th 1944).
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