NAVY’S CENTENARY – BUT FEW CELEBRATIONS
KNOWN at the time as the South African Naval Service (SANS), the South African Navy was born on April 1, 1922.
SANS soon had three ships: Protea, a hydrographical survey vessel, and two British-built trawlers, Immortelle and Sonneblom, that had operated as minesweepers in British waters during World War I. With the country cash-strapped during the Great Depression and with no apparent maritime threat, the three ships were returned to the Royal Navy in 1934.
As war clouds gathered in Europe in 1939, however, the navy (then known as the Seaward Defence Force and, from 1942, as the South African Naval Forces) planned urgently to protect the Cape Sea Route that, in the event of war, would become an even more vital artery for shipping. When war was declared and to augment the Royal Naval ships that were stationed in South Africa, some local trawlers and several whalers were commissioned as minesweepers or for an anti-submarine role.
Although naval personnel were drafted to some of the vessels, several trawler and whaler masters became lieutenants and crews were given crash courses in gunnery, minesweeping and anti-submarine operations. Some of the converted whalers served in the Mediterranean; one of that flotilla, Southern Maid, sank off Tobruk in 1941 after striking a mine. When the tide of war began to turn in Europe and in Asia, lessening the threat to shipping in South African waters, some trawlers returned to fishing even in late 1944.
After the U-boat blitz off the coast in 1942, two boom defence vessels, Somerset and Fleur, were stationed in South Africa, inter alia, to lay nets at harbour entrances and both remained in South Africa until disposed of in the 1960s, Fleur as a target for naval gunners and aircraft in False Bay, while Somerset sadly is rusting away in the Waterfront, a testimony to national indifference to the country’s maritime heritage.
Three Loch-class frigates joined the navy between 1944 and 1945, and two ex-Royal Naval destroyers – later modified extensively for an anti-submarine role – arrived in the early 1950s as did four seaward defence vessels, by which time the newly named South African Navy had set up its base at Durban’s Salisbury Island.
As the Simon’s Town Agreement of 1955 passed much of the responsibility for the defence of the Cape Sea Route to South Africa, the Simon’s Town naval base was transferred to South Africa in 1957 and the expansion of the navy began.
Ten minesweepers joined the existing minesweeping pair between 1955 and 1958 and the frigate Vrystaat was also added to the fleet.
To equip the navy better for its expected international role, three new President-class frigates and three Frenchbuilt Daphne-class submarines were ordered so that, by 1971, all had been commissioned. During their service, the Simon’s Town dockyard refitted all these vessels, despite military sanctions against the country, the three frigates emerging with very different profiles and remarkably sophisticated anti-submarine and anti-aircraft capabilities.
Similarly, during several refits, Durban marine engineers and Dockyard personnel converted a merchant naval tanker to a fleet support vessel (and later an assault ship), Tafelberg, which served the navy from 1967 to 1993. Many believe that the dockyard would be unable to tackle similar projects now, given the loss of skilled personnel.
A contract to build corvettes and submarines in France was cancelled when, although the vessels were nearing completion, the French government – amid mounting international pressure – embargoed their completion in 1977. This forced the South African Navy to turn to Israel to build three missile-carrying strike craft, and to a Durban shipyard to build another six. In addition, the shipyard built the fleet replenishment and support vessel Drakensberg in 1987 that remains in service.
Naval vessels – and even the former polar supply vessel RSA, renamed A331 – were used in various roles to support the army’s land operations and clandestine sorties during the Angolan war and to assist Mozambican resistance movements. Some of these operations were among the most daring ever conducted by the navy.
With President Kruger having sunk after colliding with Tafelberg in February 1982, President Steyn having been withdrawn in 1980, and President Pretorius scheduled for withdrawal, longer-term fleet modernisation was being planned.
In addition, the Daphne-class submarines would be replaced within a decade.
In 1981, four supposed research vessels were acquired clandestinely via Brazil to become minehunters, replacing the older minesweepers in the fleet.
The abolition of apartheid and the lifting of the arms embargo enabled the navy to consult widely in respect of acquiring modern vessels, finally contracting German yards to build four frigates for delivery between 2004 and 2007 and three submarines that came out between 2005 and 2008. In the meantime, the navy had transformed politically, paving the way for Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimu to be appointed its chief from 2005 to 2014.
Those construction projects were among allegedly crooked deals that remain unresolved following the judicial setting aside of the equally dubious findings of the Seriti commission of inquiry into the Arms Deal.
Further projects are under way to add functionality to the navy. Project Biro will provide new coastal patrol vessels and Project Hotel involves replacing the ageing hydrographical survey ship Protea.
Apart from a special gun salute, the navy will have no official celebratory parade or fleet review to mark its centenary, perhaps because of financial constraints.
However, the same navy celebrated its diamond jubilee in 1997 with 22 visiting naval vessels from 13 countries and 15 South African warships in Simon’s Town. They participated in a special light-up-the-fleet event off Simon’s Town and a memorable fleet review in Table Bay the following day.
In his characteristically enthusiastic manner, president Nelson Mandela (the country’s then-commander-in-chief) and the chief of the navy, Vice-Admiral Robert Simpson-Anderson, took the salute from SAS Protea.
Among the seven merchant ships at anchor off Mouille Point for the occasion were the Safmarine container ship SA Winterberg, the fisheries research ship Africana, an I&J trawler and the salvage tug John Ross (now SA Amandla). Although the merchant ships curiously did not participate in the sail-past, it was a grand occasion, worthy of the navy and the president.
It is regrettable that little was planned to mark this even more significant waypoint in local naval history.