Actress Gay Gibson, the victim, steward James Camb, the killer and the “death ship” Durban Castle. A first class passage from South Africa that turned from lust to murder aboard a cruise ship of the past.

Murder, suspicious deaths and disappearing at sea aboard liners from Cunard to Union-Castle have made cruise history.   The romantic decks of “The Love Boat” can be a very dangerous place.  And crimes still happen today aboard cruise ships.  The International Cruise Victims organization is an advocate group with many suspicious deaths listed.

As for cruising the past, history finds there were two or three murders supposedly linked to Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary before WW 2.  Another murder druing the during the winter of 1933 a certain Mr Poderjay most likely smuggled his dead wife aboard the liner RMS Olympic in a trunk and disposed of her out of a porthole.

Then in 1947, a decade later, another ship, another porthole and another body hit the headlines.  This time there were be no doubts about what really happened.

Porthole As Evidence – The porthole from Eileen Gibson’s cabin on the Union-Castle Line vessel Durban Castle is carried into Winchester Assizes during the murder trial of James Camb, 23rd March 1948. Camb was later convicted of murdering Gibson, an English actress, during a voyage from South Africa to England in October 1947. At the trial Camb admitted disposing of Gibson’s body through the porthole. [Read more...]