History
The South African Navy can trace its official origins back to the SA Naval Service, which was established on 1 April 1922. Unofficially, however, the SAN can trace its history even further back, to the Natal Naval Volunteers (NNV), which was formed in Durban on 30 April 1885 as well as to the Cape Naval Volunteers (CNV), which was formed in Cape Town in 1905. On 1 July 1913 these two units were amalgamated to form the South African Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). During World War I a total of 164 members of the RNVR (SA) served in the Royal Navy and a total of 412 South Africans served in the RNVR (SA) during the war, while the naval base at Simons Town played a strategic role to the Allies.
The first ships acquired (on permanent loan from the Royal Navy) by the newly formed navy were HMSAS Protea (a hydrographic survey vessel), HMSAS Sonneblom and HMSAS Immortelle (both minesweeping trawlers). However the Great Depression meant the government had to cut back and the ships acquired by the Navy were handed back to the Royal Navy (HMSAS Protea in 1933 and the remaining ships in 1934).
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)