Avondale Castle (Union Castle)

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Avondale Castle (Union Castle)

Post by shipstamps » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:40 pm

Avondale Castle was built for the Castle Line's intermediate service. She was built by the Fairfield Ship Building and Engineering Co of Glasgow and was launched on the 5th November 1896.
Her maiden arrival in Capetown was on the 22nd February 1897.
In November 1899 she was arrested by the contraband sloop HMS Partridge off Inyack Point, near Lourenco Marques for carrying gold to a neutral port from which it could reach the Boers. However the gold had been cleared and the ship was released in Durban.
During 1901 she jointly carried (with Scot) both Houses of Parliament to Edward VII's Spithead Coronation Review.
In 1914, accompanied by Norman, she landed the first men of the British Expeditionary Force at Le Havre, France and was placed on the mail service again in 1915 as the larger ships were called up for war service. Late in 1915 she was put into service as a hospital ship with 400 beds before being returned to her owners under government control the next year.
TECHNICAL DETAILS. Powered by a triple expansion steam engine, developing 3,500 indi¬cated horse power, driving a single screw, giving a maximum speed of 14 knots. Her length was 425 feet 2 inches with a gross registered tonnage of 5,513. She carried 326 passengers in three classes.
Avondale Castle was named after a castle in the town of Strathaven in Strathclyde.
St Helena SG757
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SG757.jpg

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