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Carnarvon Castle—First Diesel Liner to Sail to South Africa—20,063 Tons—Built by Harland & Wolff British Build Up African Line Government Mail Contracts Encouraged Private Service to South Af- rica—Growth from Sail to Giant Diesel Liners an Epic in Shipping 7VEN the most indifferent and prosaic person cannot watch without emotion one of the modern giant liners, towering deck upon deck, with the band playing lively numbers, gay streamers flying, and rails black with passengers waving farewells as she leaves the wharf, bound for the other side of the world. Surely then, 75 years ago, the mind of man would have reeled at the pros- pect of mammoth ships of the propor- tions of the 20,063-ton CARNARVON CASTLE making the long voyage from England to South Africa in less than 17 days. Such a masterpiece of the science of naval architecture would have seemed like a fantastic fairy tale; for before the year 1853, when no mail line existed, there were two little steamers of 179 tons each plying between England and the Cape only occasionally, and to these were en- trusted what mail there was. The dawn of 1853 heralded the foundation of the Union Steam Collier This article was written for MARINE REVIEW at the request of the editor. The author, E. J. Brown, is a resident of Johannesburg, South Africa. By E. J. Brown Co., afterwards renamed the Union line, which inaugurated the first regu- lar mail service to South Africa. It Lord Kylsant Chairman, Union Castle Company MARINE REVIEW—March, 1929 was deemed a fine thing to see a brave ship setting forth upon a venture to such a distant land. At that time the company’s fleet commenced opera- tions in a very modest manner with five steamers the UNION, the Saxon, the Briton, the DANE, and the Nor- MAN, whose aggregate tonnage to- taled 2327, only two of these vessels exceeding 500 tons. Four years later, the first mail con- tract between the Union line and the British government, for a period of five years, at an annual subsidy of £30,000, was signed and under this agreement the first ship, the DANE (530 tons) sailed from Southampton on Sept. 15, 1857, bound for the Cape of Good Hope. The largest vessel of the fleet was the ATHENS of 739 tons, which unfortunately foundered near Table bay in the year 1865, owing to a tremendous hurricane that caused the loss of many lives. The time taken to negotiate the voyage between Capetown and South- ampton was 42 days and this was considered a wonderful achievement. But as South Africa began to loom larger on the world’s map, important ‘ ‘21