HMSAS Africana

HMSAS Africana[Note 2] was a minesweeping trawler of the South African Seaward Defence Force during the Second World War.[2] She was originally a sea fisheries research vessel and was later fitted for mine-sweeping and survey duties in the early 1930s.[3] 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 U-504 off East London.[4] 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 SS Point Pleasant Park[5][Note 3] which was torpedoed by U-510 on 23 February 1945 off the coast of Luderitz Bay.[6]

History
South Africa
Name	Africana
Owner	South African Department of Sea Fisheries
Builder	Hall Russell Aberdeen
Launched	1930
Christened	Africana
Out of service	1939
Homeport	Cape Town
South African Navy
Name	HMSAS Africana
Owner	South African Seaward Defence Force
Commissioned	10 September 1939
Decommissioned	10 April 1947. Returned to Department of Sea Fisheries
Homeport	Simon's Town
Identification	T01 (to 1944) and T501 (1944–1947)[1]
Honours and awards	South African Waters 1939–1945[Note 1]
General characteristics
Type	Minesweeping trawler
Displacement	313 tons standard
Length	38.4 m (126 ft 0 in)
Beam	7.65 m (25 ft 1 in)
Draught	3.84 m (12 ft 7 in)
Propulsion	One coal-fired 3-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engine
Speed	11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) maximum

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 She later joined the fishing fleet of Irwin and Johnson and was used until 1965 when she was finally withdrawn from fishing service and broken up in Table Bay and sold as scrap.[2]