RMS St. Helena (1989)
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The RMS St. Helena is a cargo and passenger ship that serves the British overseas territory of Saint Helena. It sails between Cape Town and Saint Helena, occasionally visiting the dependencies of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha. It also visits Cardiff, Wales at least four times a year. It is the last remaining ocean-going ship to carry the designation Royal Mail Ship.
The ship was built specifically for servicing Saint Helena in 1990. [1] St. Helena is British registered, has a volume of 6,767 gross tonnes, and has berths for a maximum of 128 passengers plus 56 officers and crew.
Originally, Saint Helena was served by ships of the Union Castle Line, which ran between the UK and South Africa. However by the 1960s, the number of ships taking this route had declined significantly. 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 first St. Helena was built in 1963, weighing 3,150 tonnes. The ship was used by the British during the Falklands War as a troop ship. However, by the 1980s it was becoming apparent that the ship was too small for its needs, and a new St. Helena was built in 1989.
In 2001, the British Serious Fraud Office investigated the operators of the service, Curnow Shipping, for alleged fraud; however, the subsequent court case collapsed. In August that same year she suffered a minor engine room fire. [2]
In 2005, the British government announced plans to construct an airfield on Saint Helena, which is expected to be operational in 2010. At that time, the current St. Helena will have reached the end of its working life.
