"The story of a South African patrol boat - P1558 " Topic

"This is the tale of the South African Navy's minor warship P1558, a fast patrol boat that proved to be one of the more spectacular failures of naval planning during the 1970s. To place the story in perspective, this account begins with another ship completely, the Harbour Defence Motor Launch 1204, or HDML 1204 for short.

HDML 1204 was the last survivor of a class of eleven wooden launches built in various South African boat-building centres in 1943. This class did sterling service in the Second World War and afterwards, but all except HDML 1204 were gone by 1971. She was serving as a range clearance vessel for the gunnery school and was based in Simon's Town. However, on 12 March 1971 she was transferred to the Military Academy in Saldanha Bay as a training ship. She was ideal for this purpose as she had accommodation for two officers and twelve ratings, was 21 ,3m (75 ft) long and, at ten knots, could not really get into much trouble.

Unofficially named Disa, after the Military Academy's crest, she served the Academy well until 1974, when her keel and bottom planking became waterlogged and she was in imminent danger of sinking at her moorings. She was put up for disposal and was sold for the princely sum of R1 000 'as is, together with all relevant spares' to a Mr Charles Bates. This generated a lot of controversy in the press as 'all the relevant spares' at the Naval Stores Depot at SAS Wingfield included all the remaining spares for the entire class. Among these were spare diesel engines and even the ship's bell clock in the Academy classroom, which a stores officer had placed on the ship's inventory by mistake and which Mr Bates insisted on receiving. This left the Military Academy with no seagoing training ship…"
Full article and pics here.
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Interesting stuff – thanks. Must admit to knowing very little about the South African navy!

Glad you enjoyed it my good friend!. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand