SAS Tafelberg
| History | |
|---|---|
 Denmark
|
|
| Class and type: | Tanker |
| Name: | Annam |
| Builder: | Nakskov Skibsværft, Nakskov, Denmark |
| Yard number: | 150 |
| Launched: | 20 June 1958 |
| Homeport: | Copenhagen |
| Fate: | Sold to Safmarine in 1965 |
  South Africa
|
|
| Renamed: | SAS Tafelberg (1965) |
| Namesake: | Table Mountain |
| Operator: | South African Navy |
| Builder: | Dockyard, Durban |
| Commissioned: | 19 August 1967 |
| Decommissioned: | 1993 |
| Reclassified: |
|
| Homeport: | Simonstown |
| Nickname(s): | 'Mama Tafies' or 'Tafies' |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1993 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 18,980 tons |
| Length: | 170.5 m (559 ft 5 in) |
| Beam: | 21.9 m (71 ft 10 in) |
| Draught: | 8.3 m (27 ft 3 in) |
| Propulsion: | 10,000 hp (7,500 kW) 8-cylinder turbo-charged diesel |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
6 Delta fast assault craft |
| Complement: | 9 officers and 118 ratings |
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | 2 × Atlas Oryx helicopters |
SAS Tafelberg was a replenishment ship (AOR) of the South African Navy. The ship started life as the Danish tanker Annam before undergoing various conversions into her final configuration.
SAS Tafelberg started life in 1958 as the Danish tanker Annam in the service of the East Asiatic Company in Copenhagen. She was one of four similar ships commissioned at the time, and was named by the local Thai ambassador's daughter Vasna Virajakar. British Petroleum leased her for five years.
She was purchased in 1965 by Safmarine before being reconfigured in Durban as the replenishment ship SAS Tafelberg and sold to the South African Navy (SAN). At this time, she had five refuelling points, one astern and two solid stores transfer stations,.
In 1967, in the company of SAS President Kruger and SAS President Pretorius, she visited Argentina, while in 1968 she visited Australia along with SAS President Steyn and President Pretorius.
In 1971 Tafelberg acted as official guardship for the Cape-to-Rio yacht race. Because of apartheid South Africa's political isolation at the time, the ship could not enter Rio de Janeiro and instead travelled up the River Plate to Buenos Aires.
In November 1975 at the end of Operation Savannah, she provided logistical support to President Kruger and President Steyn during the Ambrizete Incident, and also subsequently went to Zaire to retrieve the guns that the army left behind in Angola.
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Wikipedia