Festivale (ex Transvaal Castle)

[john sefton]

The Transvaal Castle was launched in 1961 by John Brown & Co, Clydebank. She was delivered to Union-Castle Line, and served on their route to South Africa from Southampton from 1962. She remained in Union-Castle colours only until 1966, when she was transferred to the South African Marine Corp (UK), remaining on the same service under the British flag, with Union-Castle crew and management as S.A.Vaal. In 1969 she was transferred to the South African flag.

S.A.Vaal was withdrawn in Southampton on October 10th, 1977 and sold to Carnival Cruise Line, who rebuilt her in Japan with extra decks, almost doubling the passenger capacity. The external appearance was not spoilt, however, and she remained the handsome ship of Union-Castle days. She returned to service in 1978 as Festivale.

Following the delivery of purpose-built cruise ships to Carnival, she was sold to Dolphin Cruise Line in 1996 who renamed her IslandBreeze. She was chartered to UK holiday company Thomson during the late 1990s, and passed to Premier cruises with the rest of the Dolphin ships.
She spend some of her time under Dolphin Cruise Line ownership under charter to Thomson Cruises. In 1998 the ship was sold to Premier Cruise Line and renamed SS Big Red Boat III. Following the bankruptcy of Premier Cruise Line 2000 the Big Red Boat III was laid up until 2003 when she was sold to the scrappers in Alang, India. She was renamed SS The Big Red Boat for her final voyage to the scrapyard.

Builder: John Brown & Co., Clydebank, Scotland, United Kingdom
Yard number: 720
Launched: 17 January 1961
Acquired: 16 December 1961
Maiden voyage: 18 January 1962
Out of service: September 2000
Fate: Scrapped in Alang, India, 2003.
General characteristics as built, 1961
Type: ocean liner
Tonnage: 32,697 GRT
Displacement: 16,604 metric tons deadweight (DWT)
Length: 231.71 m (760 ft 2 in)
Beam: 27.44 m (90 ft 0 in)
Draught: 8.90 m (29 ft 2 in)
Installed power: 2 × Pametrada-Brown steam turbines
combined 44,000 bhp
Propulsion: 2 propellers[3]
Speed: 22.5 knots (41.67 km/h; 25.89 mph) (service speed)[3]
Capacity: 726 passengers



General characteristics as rebuilt, 1978
Type: cruise ship
Tonnage: 38,175 GRT
Capacity: 1,432 passengers
Notes: Otherwise the same as built

Various web sites.
Antigua-Barbuda SG1281