The
RMS St
Helena is the
last working Royal Mail Ship in the world and is a vital lifeline for
the
islands of St Helena and Ascension Island.
She
is a unique passenger cargo ship and is the last ocean mailship in the
world. She is the last ocean going passenger ship built in a British
shipyard. She is the
only
ocean-going vessel in the world still to carry the venerable title
of
Royal Mail Ship, held in the past by so many famous British passenger
liners,
the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary amongst them.
Design
and Construction (1989 – 1990):
Due to its
remoteness St Helena doesn’t have an
airstrip and has always been
served by sea. Until the 1970s St. Helena
was
a regular port of call for the ships of the Union Castle Line on their
UK-South
Africa route. With the rapid contraction and almost total disappearance
of
passenger shipping lines, including Union
Castle, due to
competition from air
travel St. Helena was faced with the
prospect
of isolation. As Saint Helena lacked an airfield, it was necessary for
the
British government to purchase a ship to service the remote island and
its
dependencies from Cape Town.
The last
Union Castle Line
mailship made its final voyage in 1977. The RMS Windsor Castle returned
to Southampton after her last voyage from Cape Town on the 19th
September 1977, while the RMS Southampton Castle returned to
Southampton after her final voyage on the 2nd October 1977. With this
final arrival of a Union-Castle Line ship in Southampton, over 120
years of Union-Castle linking Britain and South Africa came to a close.
It was the end of a glorious era of ocean travel.
However St
Helena still needed an ocean liner with the outside world, which for
many years had been provided by Union-Castle. In response, the British
Government
purchased a ship specifically to serve St. Helena.
Curnow Shipping was granted the contract to operate the ship and St
Helena Line was formed. Refitted the passenger / cargo Royal Mail Ship
(RMS) St. Helena came into service in
1978. The first
RMS St
Helena was built in 1963, weighing 3,150 tonnes, and was formerly
Northland Prince. She was renamed the RMS St Helena in a ceremony
carried out by HRH Princess Margaret. The new service was launched in
1978 and mostly sailed from Avonmouth, less than a year after the end
of the famous Union-Castle Line service ceased. This RMS St Helena was
requisitioned during the Falklands War and served as a minesweeper
support ship.
However,
by the 1980s it was
becoming apparent that the ship was too small for its needs with
inadequate passenger
and cargo space, and a new St. Helena
was urgently
needed, so that the old St Helena which had operated the service since
1978 could be retired from service.
The Royal
Mail Ship St
Helena was built in 1989 in Aberdeen
by the Hall Russell Ltd shipyard, specifically
to supply the island of St Helena, the British
Overseas Territory
deep in the tropical South Atlantic.
She is
British registered, 6,767 gross tonnes and has berths for a maximum of
128
passengers plus 56 officers and crew. The Hall Russell Ltd
shipyard was a subsidiary of the Hall Russell Group owned by Aberdeen
Shipbuilders Ltd and unfortunately went into receivership in 1988. As a
result the RMS St Helena was completed in 1990 by A&P
Appledore Ltd who took over the former Hall Russell Ltd shipyard.
St
Helena Line era (1990 – Present):
Since
entering service in
1990 the RMS St
Helena operated from
the UK to Cape Town via
the remote islands of St Helena and Ascension
Island.
She is owned by St Helena Line and her operation was initially
contracted to
Curnow Shipping by the St Helena Government. However in 2001 Curnow
Shipping
lost the contract which was instead given to Andrew Weir Shipping
(AWS).
The UK port of call for the RMS St Helena
for many
years was Cardiff with a brief move for
a couple
of voyages to Falmouth
in 2001. She also sailed from Avonmouth for a while. But in 2002 the UK
port of call was switched from Cardiff
to Portland.
Ever since Portland has continued to be
her UK port of call
on her occasional voyages from
the UK.
When the ship calls at Portland
she uses the Britannia Passenger Terminal. Portland
Port is located in Dorset
on the Isle of Portland and has the second largest man made harbour in
the world. It is also
located
close to the busy English Channel
shipping
lanes. Since the departure of the Royal Navy from Portland Naval Base
in 1996,
the port has been transformed by Portland Port Ltd into a busy and
thriving
commercial port building on its vast natural assets.
In 2004
her route was
switched for a one year trial period so that she only sailed from South Africa to St Helena and Ascension
Island
via Luderitz and Walvis Bay with cargo from the UK
being trans-shipped through Cape
Town.
During this time she ceased operating the traditional line voyage route
from
the UK.
However from 2005 her route was altered so that she only sailed from Cape Town and Walvis Bay to St Helena and Ascension Island. Ascension Island does have an
airfield so passengers can get RAF flights from RAF Brize Norton to
Ascension Island (booked via Andrew Weir RAF Flights) and then sail to
Cape Town from there. But the UK
line voyages were reinstated on
an occasional basis. As a result the RMS St Helena continues to make
occasional
line voyages twice a year from Cape Town
to Portland in the UK
via Walvis Bay, St Helena, Ascension Island, Tenerife, and Vigo thus
continuing the last vestige of the
ocean liner tradition of “line voyages” and “mailship voyages” into the
21st
century.
The
traditions of the ocean
liner era are continued on the RMS St Helena including captain’s
cocktail party
in the main lounge, the traditional crossing the line ceremony, the
ever
popular frog racing, cricket on deck, pool sports, skittles, bingo and
so on.
In
addition to carrying
passengers in well-fed comfort, the RMS St Helena is almost the sole
source of
supply of all goods for her island namesake. From wind turbines to
automotive
parts; sheep, goats, and Christmas turkeys to furniture, food and
paint,
everything has to be carried by ship to the island. RMS St Helena is
not just a
passenger vessel; it's a working ship, plying the Atlantic
Ocean, carrying goods and people nearly halfway around the
world.
When you sail on the RMS St Helena, you are following in the wake of
the
generations of travellers and explorers who crossed the world's oceans
in the
leisured days before air travel. A voyage on the RMS St Helena is an
unforgettable experience: a blue water voyage on a working ship to
lonely and
remote tropical islands.
In 2005
the British
Government announced that an airfield is to be constructed on St Helena and this is likely to be completed by
2010. Ascension Island already has a
military airfield. By this
time the RMS St
Helena will be
nearing the end of her
working life. This means that it is likely that the ocean lifeline
to St
Helena and Ascension Island from Cape Town,
Walvis Bay and Portland (UK)
will cease forever. This
will mark the end of the ocean mailship era and the last vestige of the
age of
the ocean liners.
Aranui - Freighter to Paradise:
The only other
ship in the world offering a service even remotely similar to that of
the RMS St Helena, is the "Aranui - Freighter to Paradise" operated by
CPTM Compagnie Polynesienne de Transporte Maritime which links Papeete,
Tahiti with the remote Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. This
service has been going since 1959 when the first Aranui entered
service.
The name
"Aranui" means "The Great Highway" in Maori, another great Polynesian
culture. The first Aranui was purchased from a New Zealand shipowner in
1959. CPTM kept her original name because it suited her. Serving as a
link between the remote Marquesas Islands and the rest of the world,
she truly was a "Great Highway" on which cargo and passengers
travelled. The original Aranui was too small to meet the needs of the
islands as trade increased. CPTM therefore retired her in 1990, and
purchased a new vessel, which also was named the Aranui.
The second
Aranui was originally built as a freighter for the Baltic trades, with
unusually thick hull plates because of floating ice often found in that
area. She was modified in Germany in 1990. After only a few years
service, she too was getting too small for the demand. CPTM decided
this time to build a brand new vessel in 2000. Thus the current Aranui
entered service.
Aranui - Freighter to
Paradise (CPTM Compagnie Polynesienne de Transporte Maritime)
www.aranui.com
|