ALNWICK CASTLE was built in 1901 by Wm. Beardmore & Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 5893grt, a length of 400ft 5in, a beam of 50ft 2in and a service speed of 14 knots.

Alnwick Castle was the first of four cargo-passenger vessels ordered by Sir Donald Currie soon after the Castle-Union amalgamation.

The conclusion of the Boer War had encouraged the belief that emigration on a large scale to South Africa would follow and, accordingly, the Alnwick Castle and her sisters Berwick, Cawdor and Newark Castles were fitted with ample third-class accomodation but carried only a few first and second-class passengers.

Two more “extra” steamers, as they were called, were added shortly afterwards, Cluny and Comrie Castles, and, until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 these six vessels were employed on the West Coast run, calling generally at Lobito Bay - then hardly developed- and occasionally at Mossamedes; they were also employed on a regular Mauritius service.

Shortly after the commencement of hostilities in 1914 the Alnwick Castle was requisitioned as a troopship and in 1915 was at the Dardanelles, where she had brought  a detachment of the Royal Navy Division.

She resumed her place in the Company’s fleet in 1916, but early in 1917 she was torpedoed when outward bound to Cape Town.

Alnwick Castle

Watercolour by Owen Keen

“THE LOSS OF THE "ALNWICK CASTLE"

From Ships of South Africa by Marischall Murray.

A day out from England (she had sailed from Plymouth on March 17th 1917 Captain Benjamin Chave in command) the Alnwick Castle picked up 25 survivors from the Trevose, which had just been sunk by a submarine.   Before daylight next morning, at 6.10 a.m., the Alnwick Castle herself was torpedoed without warning and within half an hour she had gone to the bottom of the sea.

Everyone on board was safely got off in the lifeboats, six in number, which were now cast adrift more than 300 miles from the nearest land. Within a short time the boats were separated, and were lost to sight one from another.  

In the Chief Officer's boat there were 31 souls, including the one lady passenger of the Alnwick Castle, her baby, and the ship's stewardess. For over a week these people were tossed about in the open sea. Their experiences were horrible. The Atlantic was at its stormiest and the weather was bitter; water gave out; men went raving mad; one man jumped overboard; every day someone died of exposure. On Monday, March 26th, the coast of Spain was sighted. By this time ten of those in the boat had perished as a result of their privations and the remainder were so weak that they were unable to pull towards the shore.   

It was only the following day that their misery was ended, for Spanish fishermen noticing their signals, put out to sea and brought them to the small fishing village of Carino, near Cape Ortegal.   There the villagers headed by the priest met them and took them to various cottages. in the neighbourhood where they were kindly looked after by the fisherfolk.   Later they were taken to hospital at Ferrol, from where they ultimately returned to England.

Those in the Captain's boat, too, suffered terribly. There were similar tales of death from privation, thirst, frostbite, and exposure. On the fifth day after the disaster, early on Friday afternoon, March 23rd, the survivors in this boat were picked up by a French steamer, the Fabre Liner Venezia. They were so weak that they could not climb up the side of the rescuing vessel and had to be hoisted up in slings.   In the lifeboat four bodies were left behind. It was impossible for the Venezia to wait for those also to be taken on board and given burial, for delay was dangerous in those waters where, any moment, another submarine might appear.

Weeks later a muster was taken of the survivors of the Alnwick Castle, and it was found that 40 of those originally on board had perished.  Of the lifeboats two were never seen or heard of again.