Grantully Castle postcard.

(Photo courtesy of Vincent O'Grady)

Grantully Castle, date and location unknown.

(Photo courtesy of Margaret Inman)

Grantully Castle, date and location unknown.

(Photo courtesy of Margaret Inman)

HMHS Grantully Castle, date and location unknown.

(Photo courtesy of Margaret Inman)

My grandfather posted this card to my grandmother on 24 March 1939 as he sailed for Lobito in Angola to work as a foreman erecting a flour mill. The card is postmarked Dover at 9:45pm, and he wrote "We shall soon be dropping the Pilot and I hope this last minute line will find you well", so I suppose the pilot took a bag of mail with him to post. The card also says "just heard unofficially we don't stop at Tenerife". My grandfather also sent my grandmother a telegram at 12:45 the same day from the ship at Tilbury, so I suppose the ship sailed from Tilbury with a pilot who was picked up by a launch off Dover.