SAS ''Umkhonto'' (S98), formerly SAS ''Emily Hobhouse'', was the second of three French-built s ordered by the

South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prot ...

in 1968.

Laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

in December 1968 and launched on 24 October 1969 and commissioned into the South African Navy under the command of Lt Cdr Lambert Jackson "Woody" Woodburne on 26 February 1971. The submarine was decommissioned in 2003 and

scrapped Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

in 2008.

Ship name

The first ships of the class in the French Navy were named after women, and the South African Navy followed this tradition. The submarine was christened SAS ''Emily Hobhouse'' after

Emily Hobhouse Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 – 8 June 1926) was a British welfare campaigner, anti-war activist, and pacifist. She is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions insi ...

, the British humanitarian and philanthropist who exposed the atrocious conditions into which some British concentration camps imprisoning the non-combatant

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

population had deteriorated during the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

in South Africa. Beginning in 1994, with the end of

apartheid in South Africa Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, ships bearing names of noted

European South African White South Africans generally refers to South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settlers, ...

figures were renamed, and the vessel became SAS ''Umkhonto''. ''Umkhonto'' is the Zulu word for spear.

Operational history

In 1972, SAS ''Emily Hobhouse'', under the command of Lt Cdr

Lambert Jackson Woodburne Lambert may refer to People *Lambert (name), a given name and surname * Lambert, Bishop of Ostia (c. 1036–1130), became Pope Honorius II *Lambert, Margrave of Tuscany ( fl. 929–931), also count and duke of Lucca *Lambert (pianist), stage-name ...

, landed Special Forces troops, led by Commandant

Jan Breytenbach Jan Dirk Breytenbach (born 14 July 1932) is a retired career South African Special Forces military officer and author of military books. He is best known as the first commander of 1 Reconnaissance Commando, South Africa's first special-forces ...

near

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

. The Special Forces team placed explosives on a bridge, next to power lines and other targets around town. While making the pickup rendezvous, the submarine snagged a fishing net and sank the fishing vessel dragging the net. On 17 February 1982, SAS ''Emily Hobhouse'' was part of a submarine officer commanding course exercise that took place off

Cape Point Cape Point ( af, Kaappunt) is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Afri ...

. Her mission was to pass through the security screen provided by the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

s and SAS ''President Pretorius'' and simulate an attack on the

replenishment ship A replenishment oiler or replenishment tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds which can supply both fuel and dry stores during underway replenishment (UNREP) at sea. Many countries have used replenishment oilers. The ...

, , which the frigates were protecting. The heavy seas were causing clutter on the radar screens and the execution of a World War II-era convoy maneuver in the rough seas ended in a collision at 4:23am between ''Tafelberg'' and ''President Kruger'' which resulted in minor damage to ''Tafelberg'' and the sinking of ''President Kruger'' on the morning of 18 February with a loss of 16 lives. SAS ''Umkhonto'' was paid off in 2003 and scrapped in 2008.''SAS Assegaai'' to be preserved as museum
Defenceweb.co.za; retrieved 4 December 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Umkhonto, SAS Submarines of the South African Navy Ships built in France 1969 ships Daphné-class submarines of the South African Navy