Continuing with the theme of finding alternate themes than actual castles, which is fun, and I might keep it going through the week, here we have a ship, the Balmoral Castle. Now she is described as "S.S. Balmoral Castle", but she was actually R.M.S. Balmoral Castle, and she was a steam ship, which may have been where the confusion occurred. She steamed under the Union-Castle Line and was launched in November 1909, with the intention of being used on the route to South Africa. At the time of her launch she was big news, in every way, for she was larger, and more powerful, and no expense had been spared in her interior fitting out. That was probably why she was chosen to carry Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, and his wife, when they went to open the Union Parliament in 1910, though it seems like she had been earmarked for that trip during her building.
In August 1914 she made a very different journey, with very different passengers; servicemen, recalled from South Africa to England so that they could join the war effort. She made a similar trip many times, and in between those times she served as part of a convoy, containing war essentials and food, all the way to South Africa and back.
After the war she was moved to another route, taking Australian soldiers home and bringing back Australian goods and foodstuffs. But she was scrapped, just before the Second World War, in June 1939, which does seem rather odd as she had been so useful throughout the first one.
This set is first described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
- LINERS (A). Sm. 64 x 37. Black and White. Unnd. (25). See H.407 ... J18-2
H.407 leads us to the handbook. which, at that time was published by the London Cigarette Card Company. That does not, as, often, give us another issuer, only a list of the liners included, and it reads as follows :
- H.407. LINERS (adopted title). Fronts in black and white, illustrated in Review, Vol.2, page 47. Issued by Societe Job. Unnumbered series of 25.
- S.S. Antony
- R.M.S.P. Asturias
- S.S. Balmoral Castle
- R.M.S. Baltic
- S.S. Canada
- S.S. Carmania
- S.S. City of London
- S.S. Clan Sinclair
- S.S. Devonian
- S.S. Dover Castle
- R.S.S. Empress of Britain
- S.S. Falaba
- S.S. Franconia
- S.S. George Washington
- S.S. Imperator
- S.S. Malwa
- S.S. Mauretania
- R.M.S. Oceanic
- R.M.S. Olympic
- R.M.S. Orcoma
- S.S. Otranto
- S.S. Oswestry Castle
- S.S. St. Paul
- S.S. Tainvi
- S.S. Virginian
This list proves without a doubt, that the oft used title for this set, of "British Liners", is incorrect, for there are liners of other countries here.
The strangest thing, to me, is that the R.M.S Olympic, launched in 1910, is here, but not her sister, R.M.S. Titanic, launched in 1911. This has led to thoughts that the said date is wrong, and that it was either issued late in 1912, after the loss of the Titanic, or two years earlier, just after the launch of the Olympic.
Looking at the cards, we can immediately discount the earlier theory, as S.S. Franconia gives a launch date of 1911. In fact there is no such ship as S.S. Franconia, (much as our ship is actually an R.M.S. not an S.S.), for the Franconia was actually R.M.S. Franconia. Now she was actually launched on the 23rd of July 1910, though it seems she was only launched as far as being christened with champagne, then she went straight back to dry dock and was painted, only leaving it to be delivered to Liverpool on the 13th of January 1911. That leads to another theory, which is that the Titanic was originally included, but her sinking came before the set could be released, and that card was swopped out by another, perhaps even the Franconia, which is the latest liner in the set.
As far as their retail prices at that time, 1955, odd cards were listed at between 7/6 and 20/-, with complete sets also available, for £25.
The next appearance of this set comes in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, and it is in an entirely different place, under B, for Joseph BARDOU et Fils, though much of the set listing is identical.
- LINERS (A). Sm. 64 x 37. Black and White. Unnd. (25). See H.407 ... B097-540
That H.407 takes us to a different place, our own handbook, published by us in 2003, and there have been some changes, including the substitution of the correct issuer, so it reads
- H.407. LINERS (adopted title). Fronts in black and white. Issued by J. Bardou (Societe Job). Unnumbered series of 25.
It then lists the cards, with two variations. One is just a correction of the alphabetical order, putting S. S. Oswestry Castle before S. S. Otranto, instead of after as originally listed, and the other is a spelling error, card 24 being renamed to S. S. Tain-U-i instead of S.S. Tain-V-i