A name among seafaring men: the training ship General Botha

The warship HMS Thames was donated to the South African government to be used as a training facility for young men who wanted to make a career at sea, and renamed General Botha.

- By Graham Jooste

The fate of the four Royal Navy River Class cruisers, Thames, Forth, Mersey and Severn, built in 1886, were up for discussion by the Sea Lords in 1904. The Anglo-Boer War had cost the British Empire millions of pounds, and cutbacks in the armed forces were of high priority. The First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher, sealed the ships' fate when he stated: “They are all too weak to fight and too slow to run away!” The breaking yard was beckoning the four sisters, then only 18 years old.

However, HMS Thames escaped that fate when she became a submarine tender and depot ship. But by 1920 the now older lady had become a liability to the navy, aged 34. Again she escaped the breaking yard when multimillionaire TB Davis purchased her for 8 000 pounds sterling.

Davis loved South Africa and had made his fortune here in shipping and warehousing during the Anglo-Boer War by handling goods for the British army. He lost his only son, Howard, during World War I in Flanders and

decided to donate HMS Thames to the South African government in memory of his son. She was to be used as a training facility for young South Africans who wanted to make a career at sea.

THE 'OLD LADY'S' MANICURE

In the backwaters of River Medway near Sheerness in England, the 'old lady' had been peacefully swinging around her anchor cable awaiting her end. She was rudely awakened out of her slumber by the refit crew who had boarded her, raised steam in one of the rusty boilers and headed up the Thames towards Gravesend.

She creaked and groaned with the flood tide and almost came to a standstill when the tide started to ebb against her. Two tugs fussed and nudged her into Tilbury dry dock to begin her manicure.

Thirty tons of mussels and barnacles were scraped from her hull, which filled two railway trucks to capacity. Two coats of red lead oxide were applied to her keel and underwater section.