Union Castle at Southampton 1963

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John S
Careful there' they may think you were the brains behind the hoist, and are doing a Bigsy in West Aus.
Des
Des

[j.sabourn]

In that case Des I will lay out my plan to take refuge in the Iranian Consulate. Will offer them one Gold bar for full board . That should cover it. Cheers JS.

[Jim Fitt]

UNION CASTLE
And
GOLD
Gold bullion worth millions of Rands was loaded on the weekly mail ship in Durban for shipment to Britain. Once the quay had been cleared of all people, a steam locomotive pulled armoured railway coaches carrying the gold on to the quay. South African Reserve Bank officials and a special unit of the South African Railways Police guarded the consignment which usually consisted of about 500 boxes, each with two ingots. The chief officer was responsible for loading the gold into the ship’s bullion room, a large specially fortified strong room of number three hold. Besides the chief officer, in attendance were the purser and extra second officer who, with the Reserve Bank men, did the tallying of the gold, while the fourth officer was in the bullion room. Immediately the gold had been stowed, the bullion room was sealed in the presence of the master, chief officer, purser, extra second officer and the bank officials, and a police guard was mounted during the ship’s stay in South African ports. The master and purser each kept one of the keys to the room, and on arrival in Southampton had to unlock the bullion room in the presence of officials from the Bank of England. A senior Union-Castle representative and specially chosen underlings, for whom the selection was both an honour and an opportunity to escape the office for two days, were also present when the gold was offloaded under strict security before anyone went ashore. Special cargo slings were used for the operation. As in Durban, the wharf was cleared of people before the precious consignment was put into two armoured railway trucks which were attached to the back of a London bound train. Once the gold had been delivered to the bank of England later that day, Union-Castle’s responsibility ended, leaving two young clerks to experience the delights of London before returning to Southampton on the morning train.
It is said that on one occasion, the two bullion trucks were uncoupled erroneously from the London bound train at Basingstoke by a shunter, ignorant of their contents. Naturally, there was dire consternation when the train reached London without the gold; an immediate search located the two trucks in a siding, with the gold still onboard. On another occasion the disappearance of twenty gold bars led to an international hunt involving British and South African police and Interpol.
With the usual security measures in force, gold worth R16 million in 893 boxes had been put on board Capetown Castle in Durban in January 1965. Because this was an abnormally large shipment – a result of South Africa wishing to take advantage of a rising gold price – some gold could not be accommodated in the usual bullion room and had to be placed in an adjacent compartment, normally used to carry special items of mail or other high tariff freight, such as export clothing. For this valuable cargo of gold, the compartment had been specially reinforced and the door had been welded closed.

Capetown Castle near Cape Town
The ship called at all South African ports, including Mossel Bay, and early in February arrived at Southampton via Las Palmas. When the strong rooms were opened, twenty gold bars, packed two to a box and worth R200,000, were found to have been stolen. Southampton Police requested the aid of their South African colleagues, who launched extensive inquiries at each port where the vessel had called.
Even Las Palmas was considered a likely place for the gold to have been smuggled off the ship. Passengers and crew on the southbound Windsor Castle, which had been in the island port at the same time as the northbound Capetown Castle, were quizzed by Cape Town police. They were particularly interested in the presence of a grey Rolls Royce that had been parked near the berth occupied by the Capetown Castle during her short stay to take on bunkers.
In Southampton, police interviewed hundreds of passengers, crew members and dockers; they inspected every possible place on board the liner where the gold could have been secreted and even opened hundreds of crates of South African fruit which the liner had brought to Britain. Meanwhile, the press were making a meal of the theft. International syndicates, shady masterminds and references to previously planned heists featured in speculative newspaper reports.
When the Capetown Castle was due to leave on her next southbound voyage, the police set up an office on board to continue their shipboard enquiries, particularly their interviewing of those crew members who had served in the ship on her previous voyage.
The painstaking police work finally paid off. Two crew members who had not returned to the ship had broken under police interrogation in Britain. Their modus operandi was as simple as it was hard to believe. They had crawled through a ventilation shaft, removed a grill to gain access to the mailroom, and then cut a hole in the deck head of the temporary bullion room. Ten boxes, each containing two gold ingots, had to be manhandled back along the ventilation duct. Six ingots had been hidden in a winch housing on the promenade deck and the rest amid the frames comprising the inner strengthening of the forward part of the ship. Although reports at the time stated that they had been found cemented into the bottom of a very large fire sand box – under the sand!
Boarding the ship immediately she docked in Durban in March, more than a month after the theft had been discovered, two Southampton detectives and members of the South African Police found the gold in the places described by the two thieves.
A later supposition indicated that, intending to steal part of a consignment of men’s suits frequently carried in the makeshift strong room, the thieves had broken into the compartment and in the initial euphoria of their discovery, removed the gold. Not knowing what to do with this unexpected bonanza, they hid it. Whatever the motive, they each received a ten year prison sentence.

[Michael Humby]

I sailed on the Stirling Castle around 1954, lots of memories.

Michael

[Doc Vernon]

I too was on the Stirling in 1958 , did a few Trips on her, and liked the Ships, Crew and the Brass!

Now just to end my issue on the Gold, i do see that there are a few Posts relating to Gold being loaded at Cape Town, so i was not completely incorrect!

As i do myself recall seeing this, possibly not as i though a regular thing, as that i seem to have got mixed up with the Gold Train, which i guess rightly so would rather go to Durban , than Cape Town because of Distance!

So for some unknown reason, yes Gold from Cape Town was done !
Whew!!! LOL
cHEERS

[Michael Chamberlain]

Have you read this ?
https://www.btphg.org.uk/?page_id=6013

[Doc Vernon]

See my Post #87 .
Same Link as yours !
Cheers

[Bryan Portwig]

a few images of gold being loaded in durbangold train sa (4).jpggold train sa (4).jpggold train sa (5).jpggold train sa (6).jpg