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By
Allan Jackson - June 2005
In the
print version of Facts About Durban I included an article
on ships which have been called Durban.Since then I have managed
to collect pictures of some of these and I have put them below,
with whatever I know about them. I then received words and
pictures from Rosemary Dixon-Smith on two ships that I hadn't
known about, which were also called Durban, and I have added
them on at the bottom of the page.
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Click
on the picture to view an desktop wallpaper-sized enlargement
of the picture. (1024x768px)
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Durban
Castle
The
Durban Castle was built in Belfast in 1938 to serve
on Union Castle’s mail run to South Africa and
she was converted to an infantry landing ship at the
outbreak of the WWII, carrying troops during the invasions
of North Africa, Italy and France. She later resumed
her role as a mail ship and hit the headlines in 1947
when actress Gay Gibson was murdered by cabin steward
James Camb on a voyage between Cape Town and Southampton.
Camb claimed that she had died during sex and that he
had panicked and disposed of her body by stuffing it
through the porthole. He was convicted and jailed until
1959 when he was released on license and then jailed
again from 1967 to 1978 after breaching its terms. The
Durban Castle was sold for scrap in 1962. |
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Click
on the picture to view an desktop wallpaper-sized enlargement
of the picture. (1024x768px)
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HMS
Durban
HMS
Durban was a Royal Navy D-Class Light Cruiser which
was launched in Greenock, Scotland, on 29 May 1919.
She had a displacement of 4,850 tons and mounted six
6-inch guns , three 4-inch AA guns and four triple 21-
inch torpedo tube mountings. The ship was active between
the wars, main- ly in the Far East, and on two occasions
assisted in the wake of natural disasters. The first
occasion was after an earthquake in Japan in September
1923 and the second after a hurricane at Grand Turk
in 1929. Aboard ship on her arrival at the island was
HRH Prince George who was thus the first Royal to visit
the island, albeit unofficially. HMS Durban helped to
escort the last convoy of evacuees to leave before the
fall of Singapore in WWII. She was scuttled off the
beach of Normandy in France in 1944, along with her
sister ship HMS Dragon and others, to form a breakwater
to protect the prefabricated Mulberry harbour where
allied troops and war materiel poured ashore after the
D-Day invasion. Her ship’s bell is now housed at
the chapel in the Old Fort in Durban.
HMS
Durban did actually visit Durban at least once that
I know of. See here
for details. |
Click
on the picture to view an desktop wallpaper-sized enlargement
of the picture. (1024x768px) |
City
of Durban
I
don't know much about the City of Durban but I believe
that the vessel pictured here was launched in about
1953 or 1954. I also have an idea that she may have
been the second of her name and that the original City
of Durban may also have served as HMS City of Durban
during WWII.
Anyone
with information on the City of Durban is welcome to
contact me here.
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City
of Durban -
Added 11 October 2005
Robert
Davies was kind enough to send in more information
on the City (Cities???) of Durban and it turns
out that there have been three of them.
He wrote:
"With
reference to the City of Durban, there have
been 3 ships in the Ellerman group named City
of Durban, the one you have a photograph of
[above] is City of Durban(II), one of a class
of 4 ships, the others being Cities of Port
Elizabeth, Exeter & York. The details of
CoD(II) are that she was launched in 1953, sailing
on her maiden voyage London - Beira service
in May 1954. In 1971 she was sold along with
her sisters to M. A. Karageorgis, Mundail Armadora
S.A., Panama, when she was renamed Mediterranean
Dolphin. She was to have undergone conversion
to a passenger ferry as were the Exeter and
York. Durban & Port Elizabeth however remained
laid up in Greece until sold for breaking, CoD
arrived at Kaohsiung to be broken up on 30 Mar
1974.(ref Duncan Hawes).
"City
of Durban(I) was built by Earles of Hull on
spec, being purchased by the Ellerman group
in March 1921 as a replacement for war lost
tonnage. In April 1952 she was renamed City
of Gloucester(I) to release the name for CoD(II),
on August 7 1957 she arrived at Giants Grave,
Briton Ferry, for breaking up by Thos.W.Ward.
"City
of Durban(III) was a large container ship built
for the Europe - South Africa service and jointly
owned by Ellermans and Harrison Line. Built
in Germany in 1978, in 1983 she was chartered
by Overseas Container Line(P&O) and renamed
Portland Bay, 1984 back to CoD, 1986 renamed
ACT 8 again on charter, reverted to CoD in Jan
1991, Oct 1991 Ellerman sold it's share to P&O,
July 96 renamed Pegasus Bay, July 98 Harrison
sold it's share to P&O Nedlloyd Nov 2002
arrived Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, People's
Rep.of China for scrapping. I sailed on CoD(III)
for 4 voyages as 3rd Engineer, Dec 81 to Jan
84, 2 to South Africa (3 round trips completed)
and 2 round trips to Australia/NZ when she was
Portland Bay."
Robert
added that he could not find a reference to a
City of Durban having served as a warship.
ADDED 25 January 2012: Reader Mike Thomas, who served aboard CoD(I), has the following to say about her conversion to a warship.
Perhaps a point worth clarifying - I notice a reference to the SS "City of Durban" (launched in 1921) being renamed HMS "Durban" during WW 11! Actually she was renamed HMS “Brutus” In Sept/Oct 1939 on being commandeered by the Admiralty and converted into one of six British "Q" ship's (emulating a WW 1 concept) to help counteract the U-boat menace. Apparently there’s no record of HMS “Brutus” or indeed that any of these ships actually engaged in combat during WW 11 and eventually she was "paid off" and reverted to being an Ellerman Line cargo vessel in 1941. Incidentally, in June 1950 – when trading between Calcutta and Montreal. it was the very first ship I joined as an Junior Apprentice. See here for some of Mike's experiences.
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Contributed
by Rosemary
Dixon-Smith
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Picture
courtesy R Dixon-Smith. Click
on the
picture
to view an enlargement.
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The Barque Durban
An
early sailing vessel named Durban was one of Bullard
King & Co.'s 'clippers'. These 'fast flyers' were
built for speed with forward-raking bows and aft-raking
masts. The barque Durban was launched in London
in 1870 and traded between London and Durban until 1886.
Passages to Durban in Bullard King's ships cost 25 guineas,
first class, or 16 guineas in steerage. Other clippers
owned by Bullard King included the Isipingo, Umzinto,
Empress of India and the Palala, which was wrecked off
Madagascar in 1882. |
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Picture
courtesy R Dixon-Smith. Click
to
view an enlargement.
Clipping
courtesy R Dixon-Smith: Click
to
view an enlargement.
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Union
R.M.S. Durban
The
Union R.M.S. (Royal Mail Steamer) Durban was built in
Sunderland and weighed 2875 tons. She left Plymouth
on 23 November, 1877, encountered heavy seas, sprang
a leak and had to turn back to port. Her maiden voyage
could not be continued and her passengers and mails
were transferred to the Roman. Eventually putting to
sea, the Durban experienced engine trouble, but despite
these inauspicious beginnings, by 1880 she broke the
record for the homeward run from the Cape. Being transferred
to the intermediate service, she was then taken off
the South African route between 1883 and 1888, returning
later as a cargo vessel. In 1893, 11 June, she was homeward
bound when wrecked south of Santa Cruz, on the south-east
coast of Teneriffe. She was carrying no passengers at
the time and all the crew were saved.
A
clipping, left, from the Natal Witness of 26 June 1880
reports the arrival of the vessel in Cape Town from
Britain. The clipping lists the passengers on their
way to Natal. There are also some priceless snippets
of world news that the ship must have brought with her.
They include:
- Insurrection
in Albania continues
- Position
in Afghanistan unchanged
- In
Burmah there is a revolotionary movement
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Durban
Lines - added 29
September 2005
I recently
discovered that there have not only been a nunber of ships
called Durban but also a shipping line called Durban Lines.
I recently managed to obtain pictures of the Durban Lines
vessel Berea (named after an area in Durban) taken while she
was alongside in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo). The pictures
were taken in September 1973 by Robert Davies who was on his
first sea voyage as an engineering cadet aboard a Harrison
Lines vessel on the UK to Africa route. The pics show that
the Berea had been involved in an accident with a dockyard
crane.
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Click
images to view enlargement |
I'll do
some research on Durban Lines when I get a chance.
A
yacht called Durban - added
1 November 2005
Picture
courtesy Clipper Ventures |
The
yacht Durban is currently a competitor in the Clipper
05/06 Round the World Yacht Race. The race competitors
are expected in Durban on 17 November 2005. More details
follow.
<==
Click for enlargement |
SAS Durban - added
29 June 2010
Picture
courtesy Trevor Jones |
SAS Durban. Taken by Trevor from the Durban Harbour mouth south breakwater in February 1974.
<==
Click for enlargement |
Added 3 October 2010: Memoirs of the SAS Durban by Dave Sievewright. He wrote:
As you know, the SAS Durban is now a floating exhibit in our Durban Maritime museum. When I was still in the SA Navy, the SAS Durban was sent to Durban. I joined the vessel and was appointed Coxswain (Master-at - Arms) of the vessel. Dates are a little hazy but about 1975-6.
The idea behind the relocation was to take the Indian members of the navy serving at SAS Jalsina and give them sea-going experience. Over a 3-4 week period we took over 350 Jalsina members to sea to find a group who would not get sick to start with, and who were strong enough to handle the duties aboard.
At the same time several ERMs were also taken aboard for engine room duties. We weeded out the guys quite quickly and were left with about 14 who then joined the crew. The original junior rates, mostly seamen, were drafted back to Simons town. We set about train the new crew and spent a lot of time at sea.
There were trips up to the Zululand coast where we did plenty of mine sweeping exercises and there were several trips to the Cape. After about a year or so we took part in a large mine sweeping exercise in the Cape. We fared very well and beat most of the Cape based sweepers in most activities. Our skipper at the time was Commander Fred Marais. The Durban was stationed in Durban for about 4 years before we were sent back to Simonstown where the Durban was decommissioned.
I am not sure if the vessel was ever commissioned again before it was given to the City of Durban for the maritime museum. While I write this email I recall we had a ship's cat... where it came from I cannot remember and the same goes for its name. Once when were in Richard's Bay with several strike craft we sailed and, unbeknown to us the cat had gone ashore. After clearing harbour and setting course for Durban, the question was asked " where is the cat".
The whole vessel was searched to no avail.. The skipper gave permission to radio the strike craft, still alongside whether they could see our cat on the quay. The answer was "Affirmative". The Strike Craft crew were asked to try and catch the cat which they did without too much fuss, and placed it in a large suitcase.
We re-entered harbour and lowered a sea boat (inflatable). The crew motored across to the strike craft that had slipped its moorings by then and was in the main channel heading for the entrance. The suitcase with its valued contents was collected and brought aboard. As the case was opened, the cat jumped out without any acknowledgement of those gathered on deck to welcome her back, and headed inside to the galley.
The SAS Durban was one of several Ton Class mine sweepers built in the UK specifically for the SAN.
Dave S
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