Prompted by ‘Unexpected Visitor’

A six week voyage in 1961 from Mombasa to Southampton, calling at, in old names, Pemba, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Laurenco Marques, Beira, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Walvis Bay, and Las Palmas.

What memories!

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Author: zenrules

64,MS,wheelchair,angry

9 thoughts on “Prompted by ‘Unexpected Visitor’”

  1. Hi Zen. In 1958 we sailed on the Durban Castle from Southampton to Beira on our way to Rhodesia. In 1961 we went on holiday to Kenya and Zanzibar. The Union Castle was docked at Mombassa, under the command of a certain Captain Cambridge. It was he who had been in charge of the Durban Castle 3 years earlier. Upon learning this, my father insisted to the stewards that he would be delighted to see us and so we all trooped on board to meet him. Poor man. I wonder if you and I crossed each other on the gangway!

  2. Good for you Zen. I’m delighted that my post brought back memories for you.

    My earliest memory of the mailships (which is what they were) would be about 1970. Back in those days the mailships turned around at Durban. I suppose that it was easier and simpler to service East Africa via Suez or perhaps by air, the colonies had all but disappeared so I suppose passenger travel was limited.

    Did you know that ‘occasional tourists’ could book cabins for a weeks cruise from Cape Town, via Port Elizabeth, East London to Durban and back again?

    I well remember my parents going on the Windsor Castle, (PE / EL / Durbs and back) round about 1970. We could also do short hops, I remember when I and a couple of mates went on the Windsor Castle to East London (just a short overnight trip) and arranged a lift home!

  4. Soutie, at the time my brother was at Rhodes Uni in Grahamstown. He joined the ship at E London for one night and got off at Port Elizabeth, where we saw the Springboks play the Wallabies.

  7. Zen – I have been to four of the ports of call you mention, but never in such style.

    OZ

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