As an Assistant Purser with Union-Castle in the 60s I joined the Windsor Castle in Cape Town in 1967. I transferred from the Edinburgh Castle that arrived southbound the same morning at 6am and sailed for Southampton that afternoon at 4pm - my shortest stay ever in the Cape. I then stayed on for the full round trip to Durban the next voyage before leaving to join the Reina Del Mar.


I still have some memorabilia from the ship and the Line and remember clearly trying to paint the hull of a model sailing ship, wedged in my cabin as we sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in a force 9 storm. Once I had started I had to finish, as I had mixed the paint colour with the last of my supplies. Even with stabilizers, she rolled and pitched pretty well when she wanted to. That same paint set was misused by the 3rd Officer one night to "repaint" the funnel of an east coast passenger ship entering Dar Es Salaam in a famous print used by the Line as a poster. Being from the Clan Line, he changed the funnel to black with two red hoops. I still have that poster above my bed, with its mismatched funnel. I also have many other memories of Windsor Castle and the other five of the fleet I served on before returning to shore for a proper career. Great days and great memories.

The "Windsor" left Cape Town at 1pm that day not 4pm - I must have been thinking of the old schedule that finished in 1965, not the new timings for departure - so within 8 hours I was back at sea with another 6,000 mile passage ahead....../RG