[imagesource:museumships.us]

After a gruelling 350-metre overland trip, including a 90-degree turn, the SA Navy Museum submarine SAS Assegaai was finally delivered to her final resting place at the Naval Museum in Simon’s Town on Saturday.

SAS Assegaai, formerly known as SAS Johanna van der Merwe, is the last remaining of the three French-built submarines that were operated by the South African Navy from the 1970s into the 1990s.

The Assegaai team will now prepare the ‘shore-side’ facilities as well as the sub itself for access and safety and hopes to open her to the public before the end of the year.

Despite the relative ‘short’ distance, moving the 58-metre-long, 700-ton submarine to its final stand at the western end of the Cole Point parking area, next to the new NSRI Station 10 building, was a mammoth task – made even harder by all the rain.

By late Friday afternoon, the submarine finally cleared the last barriers, “getting her protruding sonar dome over the foundations, in some cases by a millimetre or two – the thickness of the plastic covering!”

The final few metres were covered on Saturday morning and once she reached her final position, the rest of the morning was spent lifting tar and breaking concrete to allow her to be lowered onto the foundations without the sonar dome being damaged.

The dream of conserving the submarine began in late 2003 when Assegaai was decommissioned, and removed from the Disposal List, which also resulted in her two elder sisters being sold and scrapped.

From 2010 until 2015, Assegaai operated as a museum, anchored beside the outside wall of Simon’s Town Harbour. When the submarine was removed from the ocean in 2015 and placed on the synchro lift within the harbour, it became clear that the outer shell had deteriorated.

Although the inside was well-maintained, a permanent solution was required to keep the submarine out of the water while allowing access. The museum vessel has been shuttered since then.

Rear Admiral (JG) Arne Soderland (Rtd), representing the Naval Heritage Trust as SA Navy museum submarine SAS Assegaai (S99), seemed relieved.

“It is with the greatest pleasure that we can advise you that Assegaai is finally home and safe in her new museum precinct and visible to the public, albeit in need of some make-up.”

“Once our facilities are completed and volunteers trained and ready to show our visitors why we felt it so important to preserve this unique vessel and its home-grown advanced technology.”

There are some 124 preserved naval submarines in the world of which only six are in the southern hemisphere, Assegaai having been the only one in Africa.

Visitors to the area will already be able to see the old girl on dry land in Simon’s Town – well worth a Sunday trip with the kids.

[source:defenceweb]