Arrival of new submarine S101
Date: 7 April 2006
Amid great fanfare, the first of the Navy's three new Type 209 (Class 1400MOD (SA)) (SSK) submarines arrived in Simon's Town on 7 April 2006.
S101 had completed a marathon passage from the Kiel shipyard in Germany, via Norway, under the command and control of SA Navy personnel. Part of this passage was also completed alone when SAS Drakensberg, her former escort, was rerouted to France to bring back a rotor for the Koeberg nuclear power station. SAS Amatola (F145) subsequently took over the escort role. S101 was at sea for 49 days in which she covered over 6 600 nautical miles.
Speaking at the welcome ceremony, Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota stated that as this year is the 50th anniversary of the Women's March against pass laws in 1956, Cabinet had decided that the new submarines would be named after heroines of South Africa. Thus S101 was named ''SAS Manthatisi''. Chieftainess Manthatisi was a fighter of the Batlokwa clan who led 25 000 warriors to defend her tribe in the 1820s, all the while exterminating lesser tribes.
The German Consortium, consisting of HDW, TNSW and Kockums, is building the new submarines. SAS Manthatisi was launched on 15 June 2004 in Kiel, Germany and first sailed with a HDW crew on 28 February 2005 to conduct Sea Acceptance Trials (SATs) in the Kiel area. After 4 weeks of shallow water trials she sailed on 28 March to Kristiansand, Norway, to conduct deep-water trials. South African crew were based in Germany for training and SAS Manthatisi was commissioned on 3 November 2005.
Captain of S101, Commander Gary Kretschmer, was appointed as Officer Commanding SAS Assegaai on 30 April 2003 and had the privilege of not only being the last officer commanding of a Daphne class submarine, but has the privilege of being the first officer commanding of the Navy's new Class 209 submarine.
I was privileged to be invited by the Navy to attend the arrival of SAS Manthatisi and boarded the minesweeper SAS Kapa (M1223), itself a gift from Germany. We proceeded out of the naval dockyard to meet with SAS Manthatisi, accompanied by the minesweeper SAS Umkumaas (M1499) and the strikecraft SAS Isaac Dyobha (P1565). We met up with S101 off the coast in False Bay. SAS Amatola was in the distance, with Oryx 1238 flying overhead. Having photographed the the submarine, we then proceeded back to port. On the return journey SAS Kapa experienced hydraulic problems which delayed our return and necessitated us to transfer to a Namacurra harbour patrol craft (Y1512) while underway just outside the port entrance.
Many thanks to Commnaders Andrew Blake and Jaco Theunissen of the SA Navy for their assistance in compiling this report.
