History

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 21^st 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.