RMS Transvaal Castle was a British ocean liner built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank for the Union-Castle Line for their mail service between Southampton and Durban.

[3] Following the bankruptcy of Premier Cruise Line in 2000,[8] The Big Red Boat III was laid up until 2003 when she was sold to scrappers in Alang, India.

Transvaal Castle was launched at Clydebank on 17 January 1961 by Lady Cayzer, wife of the chairman of British & Commonwealth Shipping, and delivered to Union-Castle on 16 December 1961.

This concept had been used in the three round Africa service ships of the Rhodesia Castle class built in 1951/1952, but this was its first (and only) application to the mail fleet.

This was due to a combination of adverse economic factors including the loss of earnings from high value cargoes, which were increasingly being carried in the more efficient, revolutionary new container ships.

Carnival converted her into a cruise ship in Japan at a cost of $30 million,[1] removing former cargo holds and doubling the vessel's passenger capacity, installing lounges, discothèques and casinos.

Although the former mail ship's superstructure was greatly enlarged, registration in Panama resulted in her tonnage dropping to 26,632 (by UK rules it would have been around 38,000).

Soon after entering service in 1978, the Festivale was used as a floating location for the TV miniseries The French Atlantic Affair, starring Telly Savalas, Chad Everett and Michelle Phillips.

By now ageing, outmoded and in need of repairs, the Big Red Boat III could find no work and was sold to shipbreakers in Alang, India in the summer of 2003.