HMSAS Africana

HMSAS ''Africana''HMSAS stands for "His (or Her) Majesty's South African Ship" was a minesweeping trawler of the South African Seaward Defence Force during the Second World War. She was originally a sea fisheries research vessel and was later fitted for mine-sweeping and survey duties in the early 1930s. She was retained for survey duties off the South African coast throughout the war and in October 1942 she was involved in the rescue of survivors from the American cargo vessel ''Anne Hutchinson'' after she was torpedoed by off East London. In addition to survey, she was used extensively for search and rescue operations in the latter part of the war and her final rescue operation was rescuing 49 survivors of the Canadian ''Point_Pleasant_Park
''_at_uboat.net.html" ;"title="Point Pleasant Park">'' Point_Pleasant_Park">''Point_Pleasant_Park
''_at_uboat.net/ref>This_was_last_vessel_to_be_sunk_in_South_African_waters_during_the_Second_World_War_which_was_torpedoed_by__on_23_February_1945_off_the_coast_of_Lüderitz.html" ;"title="Point Pleasant Park
'' at uboat.net">Point Pleasant Park">''Point Pleasant Park
'' at uboat.net/ref>This was last vessel to be sunk in South African waters during the Second World War which was torpedoed by on 23 February 1945 off the coast of Lüderitz">Luderitz Bay.

After the war, ''Africana'' was returned to the South African Department of Sea Fisheries and was re-fitted as a fishery survey vessel, starting her first post-war survey in May 1947. She remained in service in this role until 1950 when she was replaced by the new survey vessel ''Africana II.'' She was sold to Benjamin Gelcer who used her as a fishing trawler. She later joined the fishing fleet of Irwin and Johnson and was used until 1965 when she was finally withdrawn from fishing service and broken up in Table Bay and sold as scrap.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Africana
Maritime history of South Africa
Ships of the South African Navy
Ships built in Aberdeen
Minesweepers of the South African Navy
1930 ships
Mine warfare vessels of the South African Navy