ARMADALE CASTLE HMS 1903

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aukepalmhof
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ARMADALE CASTLE HMS 1903

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Jun 29, 2016 8:18 pm

The stamp gives the ARMADALE there was an Australian passenger ship built in 1909 with this name but she had only one funnel, while the stamp shows a two funnel vessel. Comparing stamp with photos the Union Castle liner ARMADALE CASTLE is depict.

Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 423 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, Govan near Glasgow for the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. Ltd. London.
11 August 1903 launched as the ARMADALE CASTLE one sister the WALMER CASTLE.
Tonnage 12,973 gross, 7,263 net, dim. 173.76 x 19.65 x 11.88m., length bpp. 173.7m.
Powered by two 4-cyl. quadruple expansion steam engines manufactured by shipbuilder, 2.212 nhp.,(12,500 ihp.), twin shafts, speed 17 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 350 first, 200 second and 270 third class passengers.
Some of her holds were fitted out to carry reefer cargo.
November 1903 completed.

She replaced the SCOTT in the mail service between the U.K. and South Africa.
05 December 1903 maiden voyage from Southampton to Cape Town where she arrived on 22 December.
26 June 1904 she was the first mail ship to cross the bar at Durban.
1908 She carried the first shipment of citrus fruit from the Cape to the U.K.
02 August 1914 chartered as an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) armed with 8 – 6 inch guns and commissioned as HMS ARMADALE CASTLE and stationed in the Cape.
September 1914 took part in the South West Africa campaign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-Wes ... a_campaign
1915 On patrol off German East Africa.
1916 Carried gold and specie worth £7 million from Simon’s Town to Halifax. N.S., Canada.
April 1917 after a refit her armament given as 8 – 6 inch and 2 – 6pdr. guns. And she joined the 10th Cruiser Squadron for blockade patrols between the Shetland Islands and Norway.
1918 Escort duties on South, North American and West African routes.
11 September 1919 decommissioned and returned to owners, after a reconditioning on the Clyde and her passenger accommodation altered to 261 first, 271 second and 274 third class.
10 April 1936 her last sailing from Cape Town for the U.K.
June 1936 sold to Hughes Bolckow Shipbreaking Co. Ltd., Blyth where she arrived on 12 June 1936 for scrapping.

Liberia 2015 $30 sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.clydeships.co.uk http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz Union Castle Line a fleet history by Peter Newall. Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878-1945 by Osborne, Spong & Grover.
Attachments
Armadale Castle jpg.jpg
2015 armandale(3).jpg

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