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SAS Fleur was the sister-ship of the SAS Somerset and was sent to South Africa during WW

2 as HMS Barbrake. (Fig. 1.31). She was scuttled in False Bay on 5 April 1966 in a gunnery
practise and shelled by gunfire from Scala Battery off Red Hill. She lies to the south of Seal

Island and north of Whittle Rock at a depth of 41 meters. The superstructure has completely
gone and the main deck has become the highest point of the wreck, with only the boiler

protruding higher through a section of the collapsed deck. The debris field around the wreck is
spreading as the ship breaks up. (Fig. 1.32).

Survey Ship

HMSAS Protea

In 1947 the SA Naval Forces acquired a Royal Navy corvette which was converted to a

hydrographic survey ship and commissioned as HMSAS Protea. (Figs. 1.33 & 1.34). At the
same time it also acquired two Algerine Class ocean mine-sweepers from Britain.

HMSAS Protea was the second survey ship of the SA Navy. She was originally built as a

Flower Class corvette for the RN during WW 2 and named the HMS Rockrose. She was
initially assigned to convoy escort duties in the North Atlantic, but was later transferred to

South African waters and then to the Far East, with the same mission. She returned home in
1945 and was paid off.

She was sold to South Africa after the war in 1947 and was commissioned as SAS Protea on

4 October 1947. Her conversion to a survey ship was done in 1949. By the late 1950s she was
obsolete and she was placed in reserve in 1957. She was listed for disposal in 1961 and

purchased by Johannesburg businessman Ernest Bisogno – owner of Maritime Fisheries – for
R 4,000.

In 1963 she was towed to Cape Town from Simon’s Town where she underwent an overhaul.
She was renamed Justin and then sailed to Durban to begin a conversion into a refrigerated

tuna fishing trawler. The venture eventually failed and the ship was finally taken to Cape Town

for scrap, where she was cut up in 1967.