"S" Class

In 1961 the “South African Statesman”, “South African Seafarer”, and “South African Shipper” joined the fleet. They were designed for carrying general dry cargo, and were built in Scotland in the 1950s for the Clan Line then the Springbok Shipping Co. In 1966 they all had South African prefix changed to S.A. One of the most obvious features of these ships was the fitting of a distinctive cowl top on the funnel. In the engine room there were two Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers supplying super heated steam to three Parson type turbines geared down to a single shaft, giving approx 10,000shp and a speed of 17 knots. For electrical power three Ruston Hornsby diesel engines drove DC generators.

 

 

photograph ©Brian Ingpen

 

The S.A Statesman Inaugurated the 1^st dry cargo services to Hang Kong, Singapore & the main Japanese ports

S.A Seafarer / S.A Statesman Story

Lister Pollard in the engine room of the S.A. Statesman 1966

 I was a junior engineer on board Safmarine's S.A.Statesman on a voyage from the UK to Cape Town. We were about twelve hours behind our sister ship the SA Seafarer, which was also on the UK to Cape Town voyage.

In the morning of 1st July 1966 we heard the news that the S.A.Seafarer had run aground at Green Point, Cape Town,very close to the harbour. There was a very severe storm that night and the S.A.Seafarer was not able to enter port. Harbour control had instructed the Captain to keep his ship well to seaward of the port. Just after midnight, due to a navigation error, she hit the rocks at Green Point. Almost immediately her back was broken. Because of the heavy seas it was impossible to launch life boats. So in the morning the South African Air Force made a early start on a rescue mission with three Alouette helicopters. They airlifted 76 people safely ashore, including twelve passengers and a small baby.

Aloutte helicopters battled against strong winds to lift off the passengers and crew of the stricken vessel.

If you were aboard the S.A. Seafarer when she hit the rocks then I’d love hear about your experience.
Please use the comment box at the bottom of the page to contact me.

We entered the port in the morning, by which time the storm had died down. After discharging cargo we left port and it was sad to see our sister ship with only the accommodation section still sitting squarely on the rocks. The rest of the ship had been torn away in the storm and had sunk beneath the waves. 

We proceeded up the coast discharging cargo and then returned, loading cargo. The S.A. Seafarer was as we had seen her before. After loading in Cape Town we headed north for the UK. We were about 36 hours out and I was on the 4 to 8 am shift when there was a very loud bang followed by very violent shaking of the whole ship. We thought we had hit something, but after reducing revs
 the vibrations lessened. It did not take long for off duty engineers to come rushing down to the engine room to discover what had happened. The senior engineers discussed the situation and realised that we had lost a propeller blade. After radio calls to the Safmarine head office we headed back to Cape Town at very low revs which took about five days. Fortunately Sturrock dry dock was not in use so we were able to go straight in even with a full load of cargo. 

Propeller with missing blade

Propeller ready for fitting

After the ship had settled on the blocks and the water had been pumped out, we were able to see that a propeller blade was indeed missing. Shore side engineers inquired whether we had a spare blade on board which we did not have. Someone from the Safmarine office thought that the S.A. Seafarer may have had a spare blade bolted to the after deck. A team of divers were sent to the wreck and in no time they reported that there was one. Special gear was assembled and the divers went down again,attaching the blade to winches so that it could be pulled ashore. In the mean time engineers had removed the propeller from the tail shaft of the S.A. Statesman. It was then taken to their workshops where they fitted the spare blade from the S.A. Seafarer.
 

Corrosion of the studs

The loss of the blade was due to corrosion of the studs. All the studs on the other three blades were replaced with stainless steel studs. Within a few days the propeller was back on the tail shaft, and we were on our way to the UK once more. 

Read the full story "Wrecking of the S.A. Seafarer with pictures" by Robin Thompson click here.

For the full history of all 13 "S" class ships build by the Greenock Dock Yard in the 1950's click here