The Master of the Capetown Castle at the time of the gold bullion theft had only been Master since August 1964. However his relationship with the Capetown Castle went back further than might be expected. Both the ship and the man saw a lot of ups and downs over the years.
Aged 25, the future Captain Holland joined the Union-Castle Line in 1929, and set foot on his very first ship at 4th Officer. Some years later his second ship was the Capetown Castle, built in 1938, where he was now the chief officer. By then, WWII was underway and he was moved around the ships by head office, and then sent back to the Capetown Castle, again as chief officer. Overall he spent around four and a half years as chief officer on the Capetown Castle.
After the war, the newly-minted Captain Holland left the Capetown Castle, and went aboard his very first ship as Master, in June 1947. Aside from one final stint as a chief officer again, he was the Master of every ship he sailed on, from 1947 until his eventual retirement in 1966.
In 1958, as Captain of the Braemar Castle, Captain Holland was presented by Bernard Cayzer with a silver cup at Cayzer House as the winner of the ‘Catering Department (Sea Staff) Efficiency Cup for Intermediate Vessels’ in respect of the 1957 Competition. They had won the cup from the Kenya Castle which had held it for three years, and Mr Bernard congratulated the Captain on this victory.
Two years later the Capetown Castle, just arriving as Las Palmas in October 1960, suffered an explosion in the engine room, which killed seven engineers, officers and ratings, and injured seven addition people. After the official Enquiry, the Board of Trade offered official guidance that air pipes and oil pumps should not be anywhere near each other in engine rooms.
In 1963 Captain Holland, by that time Master of the Kenya Castle, found himself embroiled in an investigation of the illicit trade in cheap whisky aboard his ship, and far worse, the assault and manslaughter of one crew-member by another.
While still Master of the Kenya Castle, Captain Holland found himself writing another report from the ship, then in port at Mombasa, to Head Office in 1964. A group of six officers on leave had gone ashore. They rented a car and drove off to enjoy an evening out. On the drive back to the port, in the very early hours of the next morning there had been a bad accident, leaving one fatality, three with injuries, and two who were shocked but unscathed.
In August that same year, Captain Holland was finally reunited with the Capetown Castle. Towards the very end of the year, an Enquiry had to be held as there was another accident, when the Capetown was in Las Palmas. The Capetown propellers had accidentally been brought into contact with the quay when the pilot was berthing the ship. Presumably the Enquiry, which took place on 22nd December, was very short, as the ship sailed on the 24th December 1964 from Southampton on Voyage 158, which was the voyage that would see the Gold Bullion theft. It never rains but it pours.
Captain Holland remained the Master of the Capetown Castle until his retirement after 36 years of service on 1st February 1966, The Capetown Castle, built in 1938, lasted almost two years longer, but was eventually sent to be scrapped in 1967.