SAS Umkhonto
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Use South African English|date=March 2013}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=SAS Emily Hobhouse S98 c.jpg |Ship image size=300px |Ship caption=SAS Emily Hobhouse c. 1994 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=South Africa |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|South Africa|naval}} |Ship name=SAS Umkhonto |Ship namesake= Emily Hobhouse was a British humanitarian in South Africa during the Boer War. Umkhonto is the Zulu word for "spear" |Ship ordered=1967 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Dubigeon-Normandie |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= 19 June 1969 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened=SAS Emily Hobhouse |Ship completed= |Ship commissioned= 26 February 1971 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=2003 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= 2003 |Ship renamed=SAS Umkhonto (1999) |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= Simon's Town |Ship identification= S 98 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= Scrapped, 2008 |Ship notes= |Ship badge=}} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class={{sclass|Daphné|submarine}} |Ship displacement=*869 tonnes surfaced
|Ship length={{convert|57.75|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|6.74|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught={{convert|5.25|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Diesel-electric, two shafts, {{convert|1600|shp|abbr=on}} |Ship speed=*Submerged: {{convert|16|kn|km/h|0}}
|Ship range=Surfaced: {{convert|10000|nmi|km |
| 4}} at {{convert|7|kn|km/h|0}}
|Ship endurance=30 days |Ship test depth={{convert|300|m|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship complement= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship notes=}} |
SAS Umkhonto (S98), formerly SAS Emily Hobhouse, was the second of three French-built {{sclass|Daphné|submarine}}s ordered by the South African Navy in 1968. Laid down in December 1968 and launched on 24 October 1969 and commissioned into the South African Navy under the command of Lt Cdr Lambert Jackson "Woody" Woodburne on 26 February 1971.{{cite book|last=Couhat|first=Jean|title=Combat Fleets of the World 77|year=1976|publisher=Ignatius Press|location=San Francisco|isbn=0-87021-183-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/combatfleetsofwo0000unse}} The submarine was decommissioned in 2003 and scrapped in 2008.
Ship name
The first ships of the class in the French Navy were named after women, and the South African Navy followed this tradition. The submarine was christened SAS Emily Hobhouse after Emily Hobhouse, the British humanitarian and philanthropist who exposed the atrocious conditions into which some British concentration camps imprisoning the non-combatant Afrikaner population had deteriorated during the Boer War in South Africa.
Beginning in 1994, with the end of apartheid in South Africa, ships bearing names of noted European South African figures were renamed, and the vessel became SAS Umkhonto. Umkhonto is the Zulu word for spear.{{cite web | url=https://isizulu.net/ | title=isiZulu.net: Bilingual Zulu-English dictionary | access-date=2024-02-02}}
Operational history
In 1972, SAS Emily Hobhouse, under the command of Lt Cdr Lambert Jackson Woodburne, landed Special Forces troops, led by Commandant Jan Breytenbach near Dar es Salaam. The Special Forces team placed explosives on a bridge, next to power lines and other targets around town. While making the pickup rendezvous, the submarine snagged a fishing net and sank the fishing vessel dragging the net.{{cite book|last=Stiff|first=Peter|title=The Silent War|year=1999|publisher=Galago Publishing|isbn=0620243007|pages=50, 51}}
On 17 February 1982, SAS Emily Hobhouse was part of a submarine officer commanding course exercise that took place {{convert|80|nmi|km}} off Cape Point. Her mission was to pass through the security screen provided by the frigates {{SAS|President Kruger|F150|6}} and SAS President Pretorius and simulate an attack on the replenishment ship, {{SAS|Tafelberg}}, which the frigates were protecting. The heavy seas were causing clutter on the radar screens and the execution of a World War II-era convoy maneuver in the rough seas ended in a collision at 4:23am between Tafelberg and President Kruger which resulted in minor damage to Tafelberg and the sinking of President Kruger on the morning of 18 February with a loss of 16 lives.{{cite web |title=SA Frigate Goes Down |website=saspresidentkruger.com |date=4 June 2010 |url=http://saspresidentkruger.com/pageID_8128624.html |accessdate=4 June 2010 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704063103/http://www.saspresidentkruger.com/pageID_8128624.html |url-status=dead |archivedate=4 July 2010}} SAS Umkhonto was paid off in 2003 and scrapped in 2008.[http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=884&catid=51:Sea&Itemid=106 SAS Assegaai to be preserved as museum], Defenceweb.co.za; retrieved 4 December 2013.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{commons category|S98 Emily Hobhouse (ship, 1971)}}
{{Daphné class submarines}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Umkhonto, SAS}}
Category:Submarines of the South African Navy