Union Castle Line

Union-Castle Line, formally the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company, was the British line formed on 8 March 1900 by merging the Union Steam Ship Company (1853 to 1857 origins) with the Castle Mail Packet Company (founded 1876). It held the Royal Mail contract between Southampton and South and East Africa, sailing a weekly schedule with its lavender-grey-hulled liners, Cape Town reached 13 days out. The mailship service ran until 1977, when the route closed.