RMS Dunottar Castle - Second Boer War Milestones

Second Boer War Milestones

• 3 July 1899, "at a few days" notice from Lord Wolseley, Col. Robert Baden-Powell leaves Southampton on the Dunottar Castle and arrives in Cape Town on 25 July. On 10 October 1899, the Second Boer War begins and three days later Baden-Powell is cut-off by the Boers in the Siege of Mafeking

• 14 October 1899, Winston Churchill sails from Southampton aboard the Dunottar Castle and reaches Cape Town on 31 October.

• November 1899, General Redvers Buller and 1,500 troops are carried by the Dunottar Castle to Cape Town to bolster British Army forces at the start of the Second Boer War.

• 23 December 1899, Lord Roberts quickly departs Southampton on his way to South Africa on the Dunottar Castle where he will take command of the British forces in the Second Boer War. En route, Lord Kitchener joins Lord Roberts on the Dunottar Castle in Gibraltar to become the second in command.

• July 1900, Winston Churchill and Frederick Russell Burnham, leave South Africa and return to England on 20 July as war heroes. On the voyage home, Churchill would write the following letter to Cecil Rhodes:

My dear Mr Rhodes,

Abe Bailey has spoken to me about a plan to send a small private expedition from Cape Town to Cairo, and has suggested my coming with him. Of course I must think first of all of getting into the House of Commons, but I daresay the general election will be over before the expedition would start and were that the case I daresay I could get away.

I should personally like very much indeed to take part in such an interesting venture, and as I have to make my own living it would be a great advantage to me to do so, for what with a series of letters to a London newspaper and a good sized book to be published later, I should be able to earn a good deal of money.

Now it seems to me that this writing would help to attract public attention to the Cape to Cairo route and stimulate the interest taken in your railway scheme: so that perhaps you will think that our roads lie for some small distance in the same direction. If this be so and you would like me to go with this small expedition as Bailey's companion, will you write me - or have me written for I know you have many things to occupy you - a letter on the subject. This should reach me in about two months time, and I will then give you a definite answer without delay, for by then I shall know what prospect there is of my being able to play at `the cup and ball trick' (to quote your expression) in the House of Commons.

I lunched and dined with Frankie at Groote Schuur and much admired your beautiful house. I am sorry not to have seen you in South Africa, but the Boers interfered with most peoples' arrangements.

Yours sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill.

• In December 1900, her propeller shaft snapped and she had to be towed into Dakar. The Galician Castle went into service and in the same month went to Dakar to pick up passengers and mail from the disabled Dunottar Castle.

• On 25 November 1901 the Dunottar Castle was disabled and towed into Dakar by the SS Runic.