The SAAF Forum

I am following up on some research Guy Ellis and others did a few years ago, after the crashboat R30 hit Tooth Rock (some say Cap Rock), off Saldanha. Can anyone shed some light on the incident - especially an official report/ whether or not it actually was Tooth Rock and also what happened to the vessel in the end.
We saw the high quality of build on the R31 when we were involved in the attempted refloating of her, near Cape Point, after she grounded through contaminated fuel issues and would like to find out more as to the exact damage and area of sinking of the R30 (if she did in fact sink under tow, or straight after striking the rock).
Many Thanks
Terry MCCann ( son of the late Capt Dennis McCann, ex CF pilot of 27 Squadron)

I think Eugene will be able to shed some more info on that incident. I heard that it was a Conscript seaman at the helm when it crashed at speed into Toothe Rock.

Tooth Rock is barely awash - just a jagged point of rock about 100mm above the sea at mean tide while Cap rock is almost always dry. The whole coast between Columbine and North Head is very dangerous with numerous rocks offshore. Tooth rock, IIRC, is about a mile off Morrison's point and is perhaps the one furthest from the coast in that stretch of coast. It used to be bigger than a house and looked like a tooth - but then the SAAF got to work on it .... In the early days there was a hut on it which the SAAF used for spotting purposes, before they decided to use the rock itself as a target.

Thanks, Eugene
The story of the hut is a great addition to my research notes on the area. Over the past 35 years or so, I've researched and dived that area extensively and found bomb fragments as well as some bits and pieces that we decided were too risky to fiddle with. Interestingly, in some of my earlier research, I also found reference to a lost Spitfire off the range and have pulled a proton magnetometer in the deeper water, looking for the Merlin block and perhaps some cabling and the gun barrels and blocks. Any aluminium components would of course be long gone in the corrosive salt water.
Hopefully, more light will be shed on the fate of R30 as time passes and I would dearly love to make contact with any of her crewmembers who were aboard at the time of her unfortunate loss.

All those whom I know are either gone or I've lost contact with them - I spoke to one or two survivors many years ago at Flamingo reunions but my memory as to actual event as told are dodgy. I wonder if Speedy Basson or Warner Baxter are still knocking about the West Coast - they'd be able to give you more info, or put you into contact with the actual survivors.

I know of 4 Spitfire's that crashed in that area - none were very close to Tooth Rock though. Or "close" meaning "within a few miles"! One was South-West off Soldiers's reef, 1 hit the beach - pilot killed during attempted dead stick landing, one was just offshore somewhere south of Tooth Rock and one was well offshore. There used to be a chart in the movie theatre (what a grand name for it) at SAS Flamingo showing the locations of these crashes. Some guys like Eddie Langridge and Moggy Hargreaves had been involved and could tell stories about it.

R30 - on trials in the North Sea.

If you can get hold of a calendar the SAAF published in 1960 - I used to have a copy but it's walked - there is a photo of a Vamp diving on Tooth Rock in a cannon firing exercise and the remains of the hut is still visible.

Thanks, Eugene
I'll certainly go on the hunt for that 1960 SAAF calender as soon as I return to ZA next month.
Kind Regards