In 1888 a new contract was negotiated
with the British government which guaranteed both companies
an assured £26,000 annually but the contract stipulated
a 20 day passage to the Cape and an extension to Durban with
calls at East London and Port Elizabeth. Although the Union
Line operated out of Southampton and the Castle ships sailed
from London they offered an identical service and passage tickets
were interchangeable. Vessels departed every Thursday, alternately
from Southampton and London. In 1891 the Castle Line replaced
its Dartmouth call with one at Southampton and the services
became more integrated with the consequent reduction of the
bitter rivalry, a characteristic of trade in the early days.
The Union Line operated 10 steamships and the Castle Mail Packets
Co. (renamed in 1881) deployed 11 vessels on the mail run and
both companies worked connecting coastal services to Lourenco
Marques (Maputu), Beira and Mauritius.
The Cape steamers were small compared with
the vessels which plied across the Atlantic to North America
and even those on the Australia run. In 1885 the largest in
service was the 661-ton "Mexican" and her small sister
the" Tartar" both completed in 1883 for the Union
Line. However, the discovery of gold in the Transvaal in 1900
provoked change which resulted in the Union Mail Co taking delivery
of the 5625-ton "Dunottar Castle". This vessel surpassed
everything in both fleets with accommodation for 100 first-class,
90 second-class, 100 third-class and 150 steerage passengers.
With a top speed of 15 knots the history of the South African
mail service was about to change. The Union Line responded with
the 6844-ton "Scot". With a clipper-stem and a service
speed of 16.5 knots carrying 204 first-class, 205 second-class
and about 100 third-class passengers she was magnificent and
possibly one of the best looking ships ever built. She broke
all records for the Cape run reducing the passage time to 15
days. Unfortunately, the running costs were huge and after incurring
considerable losses over a period of 12 years she was eventually
sold to the Hamburg America Line.
The livery of the Union vessels
was drab black with a white riband around the hull but in 1892
this was changed to a white hull with blue riband and cream-buff
coloured funnels. On the other hand, the Castle ships had a
lavender-grey hull with black-topped red funnels, a livery which
survived until the company's eventual demise some 80 odd years
later.
The "Scot" and The "Norman" (2)
Looking for a more economical
vessel the "Scot" was followed by the 7537-ton steamship
"Norman". Built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast she
was slower operationally but was considerably more advanced
than any other vessel built or being built for the Castle fleet
and laid the foundations for a new generation of Union liners.
The 10248-ton "Briton" and the 12385-ton "Saxon"
followed, each contributing to the development of the classic
Union-Castle design which culminated with the building of the
"Edinburgh Castle" and the "Balmoral Castle"
in 1910.
At the end of the 19th century the Castle
vessels were old fashioned in appearance compared with the their
Union rivals but they were popular and Donald Currie's Castle
Line was probably more financially secure than the Union Steamship
Company.
When the mail contract expired
in 1900 there were no additional applicants for the new contract
and, consequently, the managements of both companies were able
seek concessions, notably the exclusion of any clause forbidding
a merger of the two concerns. Once the contracts had been signed
and sealed Donald Currie approached the Union Line's board and
proposed a merger which was agreed and in March 1900 the assets
of the Union Line were transferred to the Castle Mail Packets
Co. The company was then restructured to become the Union-Castle
Mail Steamship Co. Ltd. and adopted the distinctive lavender-grey
hull of the Castle Line for the new company. All new vessels
joining the fleet from that date had Castle names, the Union
liner "Celt", sister of the "Saxon", was
completed as the "Walmer Castle". Similar ships but
with additional first-class accommodation, the "Armadale
Castle" and the "Kenilworth Castle", were completed
in 1903 and 1904 respectively.
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