SAS ''Spear'' (
pennant number
In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...
: S97), initially known as the SAS ''Maria van Riebeeck'', was a of 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 ...
(SAN). Built in France during the 1960s, the boat was the SAN's first submarine. It was
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 June–July 2003.
Description
The submarine
displaced surfaced and submerged. It measured long, had a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a
draft of . For surface running, the boat was powered by two
SEMT Pielstick diesel engines, each driving a single propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a
electric motor. ''Spear'' could reach on the surface and underwater. While
snorkelling, the boat had a range of at . It was armed with a dozen
torpedo tubes, eight in the bow and four in the stern. ''Spear'' had a complement of 6 officers and 41
ratings.
[
]
Construction and career
The boat was laid down at the Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
shipyard of Dubigeon-Normandie on 14 March 1968, launched on 18 March 1969 and commissioned on 22 June 1970.[Moore, p. 400]
On 20 August 1970, ''Maria van Riebeeck'' collided with the French submarine (also a member of the ''Daphné'' class) off Toulon. Both submarines were badly damaged, with ''Galatée'' being forced to run aground to avoid sinking.
The boat received an upgraded sonar and electronics during a mid-life update that was completed in 1992.[Gardiner, Chumbley & Budzbon, p. 335] ''Spear'' was scrapped in Simon's Town by SA Metal and Machinery Co. (Pty) Ltd. during June–July 2003.
Citations
References
*
*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spear, SAS
Submarines of the South African Navy
Ships built in France
1969 ships
Daphné-class submarines of the South African Navy
Ships built by Chantiers Dubigeon