"PRETORIA CASTLE"

The album, 300 x 400 mm, is bound in full blue leather with gilt titling on the upper cover. It contains thirty six card leaves on which are mounted large full-plate photographs, one per leaf. The photographs are of the ship, sea trials, first arrival in Cape Town, the various decks and scenes of the interior of both first class and cabin class.

A group of Pretoria school children were invited to visit the ship in Durban harbour and there are several photographs of their time on board.

A presentation inscription to "Ouma" Smuts by J. Vernon Thomson, Chairman and Managing Director, Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. Ltd. on the first leaf reads:

'To the kind and gracious lady enshrined in the hearts of thousands and in mine, as "Ouma" Smuts, with kind thoughts, happy memories, and best wishes always. F. Vernon Thomson. London, 18th November 1948.'

For the Union-Castle Line, 1948 was a year of profound transition. Following the devastation of World War II (where the company lost several major vessels like the Windsor Castle), Thompson oversaw the massive postwar shipbuilding program.

1948 marked the completion and maiden voyages of the RMMV Pretoria Castle and the RMMV Edinburgh Castle. At 28,000 tons each, these were the largest and most luxurious ships ever built for the South African run at that time. With her iconic lavender coloured hull and vermilion funnel the Pretoria Castle was designed to make the journey from Southampton to Cape Town a seamless luxury experience.

Sir Vernon Thomson was the chief negotiator for the South African Mail Contract, ensuring that the Union-Castle Line remained the sole carrier of government mail, a status that underpinned the company's dominance.

At the time of the launching Sybella ("Ouma") Smuts was seventy six years old and too frail to make the long journey to the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In a feat of technology for August 1947, a unique radio link was established between her home, "Doornkloof" in Irene (near Pretoria), and the shipyard in Belfast, where she pressed a button and sent a signal that triggered the mechanism that smashed the bottle of South African wine against the bow and released the ship down the slipway.

 A contemporary new reel report of the event may be viewed on YouTube at -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zENf-4TeBxk

The Pretoria Castle was later renamed the S.A. Oranje.