TS General Botha

Originally commissioned as HMS Thames, a British Mersey-class second-class cruiser launched in 1885, the vessel was sold in late 1920 to South African entrepreneur T.B. Davis. Renamed TS General Botha (after Louis Botha, the first Prime Minister of South Africa), she was refitted and departed Plymouth in early 1921 for Cape Town. Davis donated the ship to a training trust, stipulating it serve for nautical training of cadets. The ship was permanently moored at Simon’s Town (Simon's Bay) starting in 1922 as the South African Training Ship General Botha. The first intake of 75 cadets joined in March 1922. By the 1930s, over 1,200 cadets had been trained aboard. General Botha’s propulsion machinery and armaments were removed over this period and her interiors converted into classrooms, mess halls and recreation spaces.

During World War II, concerns over submarine threats led to the cadets being moved ashore (on Red Hill) by 1942, while the now-accommodating ship was taken over by the navy for use as a stationary headquarters and barracks. After the war it was determined that the old ship was beyond economical repair; she was decommissioned and scuttled by naval gunfire on 13 May 1947 in False Bay off Cape Town. The wreck of General Botha now lies beneath False Bay and has become a known dive site. Today her legacy is preserved through a memorial museum exhibit in Simon’s Town and an active alumni association of former cadets.