# Attempted gold theft, Union Castle Line



## rainbow (Feb 10, 2006)

Hi everyone,
I was having a pint with a pal who I used to sail with and we got talking about a theft of gold bullion aboard one of the Castle boats, the Cape Town Castle. Although this subject has been raised during several bar-room debates (biting and eye-gouging forbidden if there is a falling out) it's been dropped because there's scant info on it, also, there seems to be very little published on the net about the incident. I have been told it was retrieved the following voyage in one of the ship's holds, hidden in chunks of concrete. 
I'd be grateful if anyone could fill in a large blank space.

Tony


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## R58484956 (Apr 19, 2004)

Capetown Castle 1965 £100,000 gold bullion hidden away as stated above, later 2 seaman jailed for pinching it.
Reference to gold,when gold was loaded onto the QE (1) in Southampton you could go and touch it, no security, but when it went ashore in NY armed guards every where, pier sealed off, no one allowed anywhere near it. Possibly would be the same both ends today.


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## dom (Feb 10, 2006)

*dom*

two or three stories about that,one was that they never found out how they did it,i heard it as hidden in the fire sand box's in the engine room,caused a lot of trouble for the crew on their leave


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## gdynia (Nov 3, 2005)

Rainbow

From the following Website of the Union Castle Line you can get info

http://www.red-duster.co.uk/UNION19.htm

An extract from another Webpage

Our ships were also unique in that they were a mix of cargo and passenger ship. This meant that we had seven large holds filled with freezer or general cargo that occupied much of the interior of the ship and thus we had fewer passenger cabins than normal and hence more passenger deck space per person than most other liners. Our major cargo going north was meat or fruit from the Cape in the freezers and Gold from goldfields in the Transvaal, destined for the Bank of England. The gold was normally stored in special vaults in a forward hold . On that trip the gold cargo was greater than normal and a special compartment had been constructed to hold the excess, next to the normal vaults in the same forward hold. (On another ship a year later I relieved the Purser for an hour while he lunched and I myself supervised and recorded the loading of the gold.) 

During the passage from Cape Town, a couple of the crew had discovered that ventilation shafts into this temporary area had not been blocked off. They used them to enter the cages and steal ten boxes of the gold bullion, in the standard bars two to a box, valued at about £100,000 but many times that amount today. Gold was worth $35US an ounce back then. The loss was discovered when the ship unloaded in Southampton but for months no trace could be found of the gold. 

The entire ship was searched many times before she sailed as usual for Cape Town two weeks later. They had no clues or suspects. Scotland Yard had decided that it was an inside job and that the people responsible must have left the bullion untouched, hidden on board. A strict watch was maintained over the next number of months, probably by undercover officers on the crew and eventually were rewarded when the thieves did make their move. An attempt was made to sell a few bars in Durban. The rest of the gold was discovered concreted into the base of a sand filled container on deck near the stern and was ultimately recovered and returned to the bank. Two seamen were sentenced later to ten years in jail.


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## rainbow (Feb 10, 2006)

Thanks to all, especially Gydnia.

Tony


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## Dennis0312 (Oct 20, 2020)

rainbow said:


> Hi everyone,
> I was having a pint with a pal who I used to sail with and we got talking about a theft of gold bullion aboard one of the Castle boats, the Cape Town Castle. Although this subject has been raised during several bar-room debates (biting and eye-gouging forbidden if there is a falling out) it's been dropped because there's scant info on it, also, there seems to be very little published on the net about the incident. I have been told it was retrieved the following voyage in one of the ship's holds, hidden in chunks of concrete.
> I'd be grateful if anyone could fill in a large blank space.
> 
> Tony


Hi Tony
My memory tells me that Scotland Yard found the gold in the sand lockers on the deck. 
regards
Dennis


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## old mariner (Aug 8, 2020)

View attachment 683522
View attachment 683522
hope this helps


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## pippin (May 13, 2008)

Page 2?


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## grahamtotterdell77 (Dec 27, 2021)

R58484956 said:


> Capetown Castle 1965 £100,000 gold bullion hidden away as stated above, later 2 seaman jailed for pinching it.
> Reference to gold,when gold was loaded onto the QE (1) in Southampton you could go and touch it, no security, but when it went ashore in NY armed guards every where, pier sealed off, no one allowed anywhere near it. Possibly would be the same both ends today.


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