HMS Vanguard
Battleship HMS Vanguard in 1951. Photo from dad's photo albums.
Battleship HMS Vanguard in 1952. Photo from dad's photo albums.
HMS Gambia, Vanguard and two submarines, Gibraltar, 1952. Photo from dad's photo albums.
HMS Vanguard. Photo from Taff Webb.
Durban, South Africa, 1950s / 1960s
HMS Albion, HMS Gambia, HMS Lynx, MS Norse Captain, NRP Nuno Tristão, HMS Seraph, SAS Vrystaat, and SAS Walvisbaai
In February 2026, Claude Leroy sent me a wonderful set of photographs taken in Durban, South Africa in 1959 or 1960. Between us we could not find any records confirming an international naval exercise where HMS Albion, HMS Gambia, and Royal Navy ships with pennant numbers F27, F157, F332, and M1214 docked together in Durban, South Africa.
HMS Gambia spent most of 1959 in the Mediterranean Sea. She took part in exercises Dawn Breeze IV in March 1959 and Fairwind IV in May and June 1959. The ship took part in Exercise JET near Trincomalee from February 15, until February 26, 1960. This was the 10th and largest Joint Exercises at Trincomalee (JET) exercise and involved the navies of Australia, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Britain.
HMS Gambia was at Durban from May 7, 1960 until May 18 at the end of her 1958/60 commission on her way back to the United Kingdom. There was no multinational exercise there that included all the pictured ships, but Home Fleet movements occasionally included South Africa stops. South African Navy assets like M1214 suggest local participation, perhaps in joint visits rather than a formal exercise.
Some notes on the ships
HMS Albion (R07) - The aircraft carrier entered service in May 1954, and was decommissioned in 1973. The ship carried various aircraft such as Sea Hawk FGA.6 fighter-attack aircraft, Sea Venom FAW.21 night/all-weather fighters, Skyraider AEW.1 early-warning aircraft, Whirlwind HAS.7 anti-submarine helicopters, and a Dragonfly HR.5 helecopter for search-and-rescue duties.
In one of the above photos a Douglas AD-4W Skyraider AEW1 with the registration WT959 can be seen. Here is another photo of it from 1958.
HMS Gambia (C48) - A Crown Colony-class cruiser. She was commissioned in February 1942 and transferred to the New Zealand Navy in September 1943 as HMNZS Gambia. She was returned to the Royal Navy in July 1946. She was put into reserve in December 1960, and finally scrapped in 1969. The visit to Durban was one of her last public duties.
HMS Lynx (F27) - A Leopard-class Type 41 anti-aircraft frigate commissioned in 1957 as leader of the 7th Frigate Squadron. In March 1982, she was sold to the Bangladeshi Navy and renamed BNS Abu Bakr. She was decommissioned in January 2014.
MS Norse Captain - This cargo ship was built as the Caledonia (AK-167) in the USA. In 1947, she was sold to a Norwegian company and renamed Norse Captain. In 1962, she was sold to a Philippine company and renamed to Mabini. In 1964, she was renamed the President Quezon. In 1965, she was sold to another Philippine company and renamed to Seven Kings. The ship was scrapped in 1980.
NRP Nuno Tristão (F332) - The ship was commissioned in September 1943 as HMS Avon (K97), a River-class frigate. In 1949, she was sold to Portugal and renamed NRP Nuno Tristão (F332). In 1970, the ship was decommissioned and scrapped in Lisbon two years later.
HMS Seraph (P219, later S11) - This submarine was commissioned in June 1942. Her pennant nuber was changed from P219 to S11 some time after 1953. She was decommissioned in October 1962 and scrapped later that year.
SAS Vrystaat (F157) - A W-class destroyer built in 1944 as HMS Wrangler (R48). After the war she became a training ship (D158) In 1951, she was converted into Type 15 anti-submarine frigate (F157) with most of the superstructure made of aluminium. She was sold to South Africa in January 1957 and renamed SAS Vrystaat. She had galvanic corrosion problems between the aluminium superstructure and steel hull and put in reserve in 1963. She was sunk by the submarine SAS Maria van Riebeeck as a training target in April 1976.
SAS Walvisbaai (M1214) - She was built as HMS Packington, a Ton-class minesweeper, in 1958 but transferred to the South African Navy in September 1959 as SAS Walvisbaai. She was retired in March 2001 and sold to the Walt Disney Company in 2003 to be used as the R/V Belafonte in the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
She was then sold to a private owner in 2006, and converted into a luxury yacht. The conversion was completed in 2012 and she was renamed Mojo.
Loch-class Frigates - These frigates were built towards the end of WWII. Three of them, Loch Ard, Loch Boisdale and Loch Cree were transferred to South Africa as Transvaal, Good Hope and Natal respectively. SAS Natal was sunk as a target ship in 1972. The other two were sunk as artifical reefs in 1978.
