Qualla: SAS Transvaal https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/4/sas-transvaal-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: SAS Transvaal https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal SAS Transvaal: Introduction https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal/ Photo credit Peter Southwood, CC BY-SA 3.0. She was commissioned one week after Germany surrendered. Built at Harland & Wolff's Belfast shipyard as HMS Loch Ard, the frigate was transferred to the South African Navy in 1944 while still under construction, renamed HMSAS Transvaal, and completed on May 14, 1945 -- too late for the war she had been designed to fight. What followed was not the anti-submarine career the ship's triple-barrelled Squid mortars were built for, but a thirty-year second act of diplomacy, rescue, and exploration across the southern oceans.

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Image: Peter Southwood | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/4/sas-transvaal-wp/k6j4-sas-transvaal-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SAS Transvaal: An Empire's Errands https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal/ Photo credit Peter Southwood, CC BY-SA 3.0. Transvaal's postwar duties read like the itinerary of a seafaring bureaucrat. Between November 1945 and March 1946, she repatriated some 700 troops from Egypt alongside her sister ships. In 1947, she escorted the battleship serving as the royal yacht during King George VI's tour ...

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Image: Peter Southwood | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/4/sas-transvaal-wp/k6j4-sas-transvaal-an-empires-errands.mp3 0:06 2 full SAS Transvaal: Rescues and Remote Islands https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal/ Photo credit Peter Southwood, CC BY-SA 3.0. Between the ceremonial duties, Transvaal earned her keep with unglamorous but vital work. Sailing from Durban to Simon's Town, she rescued survivors from a stricken tanker. In February 1949, she towed a disabled coastal steamer from the South Atlantic all the way back to Cape Tow...

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Image: Peter Southwood | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/4/sas-transvaal-wp/k6j4-sas-transvaal-rescues-and-remote-islands.mp3 0:06 3 full SAS Transvaal: Refits, Repairs, and Retirement https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal/ Photo credit Haig Parry W (of Middlesbrough), Public domain. Transvaal entered Simon's Town Naval Dockyard on September 11, 1957, for a refit that would consume three years. Her main armament was replaced with more powerful four-inch Mk XVI guns in a twin turret. Anti-aircraft defenses were modernized with 40mm Bofors mounts, and her radar...

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Image: Haig Parry W (of Middlesbrough) | Public domain

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/4/sas-transvaal-wp/k6j4-sas-transvaal-refits-repairs-and-retirement.mp3 0:06 4 full SAS Transvaal: A Second Life on the Seabed https://qualla.com/sas-transvaal/ Photo credit Peter Southwood, CC BY-SA 3.0. Transvaal sat in reserve for thirteen years before being sold for scrap in 1977 alongside her sister ship Good Hope, fetching a modest R6,500. But the story did not end at the breaker's yard. After salvagers stripped her of valuable metals and fittings, the hulk was donated to th...

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Image: Peter Southwood | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/4/sas-transvaal-wp/k6j4-sas-transvaal-a-second-life-on-the-seabed.mp3 0:06 5 full