SAS Simon van der Stel

SAS Simon van der Stel began her career as HMS Whelp, one of eight W-class destroyers ordered by the Royal Navy in 1941. She was laid down in May 1942 by Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn and launched in June 1943, entering service in April 1944. Whelp served with the Eastern and Pacific Fleets, screening aircraft carriers during late-war Pacific operations (attacks on the Nicobar Islands, the Dutch East Indies, Formosa, and Okinawa). She was present in Tokyo Bay for the formal Japanese surrender in September 1945. Post-war, Whelp was paid off in January 1946 and placed in reserve.

In 1952 the ship was sold to the South African Navy to replace the destroyer HMSAS Natal. Renamed SAS Simon van der Stel (for the 17th-century Cape Governor and wine-industry founder), she was commissioned into South African service in March 1953. During the 1950s she performed training and goodwill duties (a 147-day cruise to Europe in 1954 is recorded) and operated in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Simon van der Stel was placed in reserve in 1957.

From 1962 to 1964 Simon van der Stel underwent a Type 15 conversion to an anti-submarine frigate. The refit added anti-submarine weapons, updated guns, and a helicopter flight deck and hangar for Westland Wasp helicopters. Recommissioned in early 1964, she served mainly as a training ship. In 1969 she participated in a search mission to Gough Island (South Atlantic) to recover missing meteorologists. She was, at that time, the only helicopter-capable vessel in the South African Navy.

Simon van der Stel was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 27 March 1972. A planned refit in 1975 was deemed uneconomical, and the ship was sold for scrap in 1976. Throughout her career, the vessel was 110.6 meters long (beam 10.9 m) with a deep-load displacement of about 2,570 tons, and her crew complement was about 179.