page_title: South African Navy
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: South African Navy / History
caption_attribution_description: SAS Immortelle, circa 1935.
context_page_description: The South African Navy is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The role of the navy is to prepare for and to conduct naval operations in defence of the South African state, its citizens and interests and to carry out peacetime operations in support of other national objectives.
  Other tasks include the maintenance, preservation and the provision of naval services in support of other state departments and authorities, including search and rescue, protection of maritime resources, and diplomatic sea transport support.
context_section_description: 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 (RN) and a total of 412 South Africans served in the RNVR (SA) during the war, while the naval base at Simon's 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).
caption: SAS Immortelle, circa 1935
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