South African Navy Expeditionary Operations in the Southern Ocean

Abstract

The South African maritime relation with the Southern Ocean dates back to the earliest voyages of discovery. Cape Town provided a logistical staging point for mariners on their expeditions further south where a number of isolated islands are situated in one of the most inhospitable and stormy oceans in the world. The strategic importance of the Prince Edward Islands was considered after the Second World War, and the Union Defence Force was tasked to annex the two uninhabited islands. The equipment and expertise of the South African Naval Forces provided the most effective way to reach the desolate islands in the Southern Ocean. The Navy continued to provide a regular service to the weather stations on Marion and Gough Island, until the Department of Transport acquired its first dedicated polar research and supply ship. The Navy however continued to undertake mercy dashes south, to uplift critically sick patients or to conduct search and rescue operations. Developments in maritime aviation provided the South African Air Force with new capabilities to support the Navy in such operations. Larger vessels, such as the hydrographic survey vessel SAS Protea (from 1972) and the logistical supply vessel SAS Drakensberg (from 1987), were well suited to conduct operations independently, and made several voyages south. From 1993, the capable supply vessel SAS Outeniqua made eight round-trip voyages to Antarctica to assist the construction of the new SANAE IV base. The frequency of Navy operations to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica diminished significantly during the last 20 years, in part due to the addition of dedicated vessels operated by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Environmental Affairs.