Page 19 - KBHA BULLETIN 24

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In 1953 she was placed in reserve and converted to a survey ship during the mid-50s. By 1972

she was declared obsolete and on 19 September 1972 she was sunk as a target off Cape Point,
by gunfire from the SAS President Steyn and depth charges from an Avro Shackleton maritime

patrol aircraft of the SA Air Force. (Fig. 1.19).

SAS Good Hope

The SAS Good Hope was laid down on 8 November 1943, launched on 5 July 1944, and
commissioned on 9 November 1944. (Fig. 1.20). She was originally named HMS Loch

Boisdale but at the time of fitting out the British transferred her to the SA Navy and she was

th
re-named SAS Good Hope. Her first assignment was to the 18 Escort Group of the Western
Approaches Command, covering convoys between England and France, until the German

surrender in May 1945.

On 6 June 1945 she sailed for South Africa and together with her two sister ships performed

several duties touring various African ports. In 1948 she was reduced to reserve at Salisbury

Island in Durban. In mid-1954 she was converted to a dispatch vessel in Durban and was again
re-commissioned on 3 June 1955 as the flagship of the South African navy. Later that year a

Sikorsky S 55 helicopter landed aboard SAS Good Hope, making it the first deck landing
aboard a South African warship.

She was re-fitted in 1958 in Simon’s Town and during the early 1960s was assigned to fisheries

protection duties in addition to her normal training tasks. In 1965 she was paid off and together
with her sister ship SAS Transvaal was sold for scrap in 1977 for the sum of R 6,500. After all

the valuable metals and fittings had been removed she was donated to the False Bay
Conservation Society to be used as an artificial reef. She was scuttled in Smitswinkel Bay on

12 December 1978. (Figs. 1.21 - 1.23).

SAS Transvaal

The SAS Transvaal was laid down on 20 January 1944 at the Harland and Woolff Shipyard in

Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Fig. 1.24). She was launched on 2 August 1944 and commissioned
on 14 May 1945. She was originally named HMS Loch Ard but was re-named by South Africa

after she was transferred by the British during construction.

She arrived in Table Bay on 28 July 1945. Apart from repatriating troops from Egypt between

November 1945 and March 1946, she acted as escort ship for the battleship HMS Vanguard