Dobbin is a rocking horse, made in 1937 for the Union-Castle passenger liner "Capetown Castle" and was handcrafted by joiners at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the ship was also built. The horse was named "Dobbin" and was the main attraction in the First Class children's playroom on the long voyages between Southampton and South Africa.
Dobbin the rocking horse being ridden by one of Capetown Castle's junior officers in 1965.
When my customer Mark, a former seafarer who used to work for Union-Castle Line, stumbled across Dobbin earlier this year along with an accompanying origin note written by a former company technical manager, he jumped at the chance to carefully restore the horse. Although the ship was scrapped well before Mark joined, he's always on the lookout for Union-Castle memorabilia as the company no longer exists.
Dobbin the rocking horse earlier this year, before restoration (he looks better in the picture than he actually was), along with the accompanying note written by David Aris, Technical Manager, Union-Castle Line, 1965-1976.
RMMV Capetown Castle was launched on 23 September 1937 and was a slightly enlarged version of Stirling Castle and Athlone Castle of 1936. During World War II, the the ship was requisitioned by the British government as part of the Liner Requisition Scheme and the Capetown Castle was fitted out for service as a troopship. In 1943 she took part in Operation Bolero, the build-up of troops in preparation for D-Day, and was eventually returned to civilian use in the South African trade in 1947 after a major refit in Belfast, having sailed 484,000 miles and carried over 164,000 troops.
A 1937 postcard of RMMV Capetown Castle.
As time went by, the Capetown Castle was overtaken by newer and faster liners, and so was moved from the longer voyages onto intermediate length voyages, and eventually was withdrawn from service in 1967, after a service life of nearly 30 years. Dobbin stayed on board the liner right until the end, and was then kept in storage in Southampton for possible use on other liners, but in fact was never needed.
Dobbin after being lovingly restored this year by my customer Mark, including the engraved brass plaque that I made.
I only played a very small part in restoring Dobbin, which was to provide the polished brass plaque shown in the photos above. The rest of the work was done by Mark (in fact, Mark also added the circular RMMV Capetown Castle emblem at the top of the plaque), and he very kindly shared the photos of Dobbin and some of his background.
It is always nice knowing the context to why I'm making a plaque and it makes it that much more meaningful, especially when the project has a special significance to my customer. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Mark's grandson turns 3 in a few weeks time and Mark plans to give Dobbin to him for his birthday. Hopefully Dobbin will remain in the family for many generations to come!
Congratulations and thank you so much, Mark, for sharing the photos and the information above.
As an aside: David Aris (the Union-Castle Technical Manager who wrote the note about Dobbin) made the headlines last year after raising money for charity by braving the Velocity zip wire experience at the age of 94! www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgj26n69pzo