This absorbing account of the ocean mail service that plied between Britain and southern Africa for 1857 to 1977 captures the spirit of an era now gone.

• The ocean mail contract
• a duel for supremacy
• combined forces
• between the wars
• the second world war
• the new order
• a change of flags
• farewell to the sunshine route
• final reflections
• The maritime history of South Africa
• a chronology of events
• Mailships of the union, castle and union
• castle lines
• Some statistics
• Badges of rank, funnels and flags