Family reunited on sub
2005-11-10
A FAMILY tradition is to be kept alive as son, like father, mans the first of a new class of submarine for the SA Navy.
Rear Admiral Chubby Howell, now retired to a farm near Paarl, was a member of the crew of the SA Navy’s first Daphne class submarine, then known as SAS Maria van Riebeeck (subsequently named SAS Spear in 1994).
His son Neville, a Lieutenant Commander on board, will be a member of the crew of S101, the first of three Type 209 submarines procured for the South African Navy.
This is something of a unique achievement.
S101 was commissioned recently at the Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW) shipyard in Kiel, Germany - a project Rear Admiral Howell, who is now retired, was involved in from inception.
The submarine was symbolically handed over to the Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, by Walter Freitag, member of the Management Board of HDW.
The Minister in turn handed it over to the Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Refiloe Mudimu, who ordered the commissioning of the boat.
S101 was then commissioned under the command of Commander Gary Kretschmer.
The submarine, the Type 209/1400 MOD, is one of three boats ordered by the SA government to replace the obsolete Daphne class submarines, the last of which was taken out of service in November 2003.
The initial commissioning ceremony is a historic occasion during which the South African flag is raised on board for the first time and she is manned for the first time by a fully South African crew.
S101 is expected to sail on 14 November for the first time under the SA flag.
She will be conducting sea training and a work-up period prior to the submarine’s departure for South Africa where she is expected to arrive in late March.
She will be escorted home by the combat support ship SAS Drakensberg.
South Africa is one of 13 countries to procure the Type 209 submarine, which is considered to be one of the most successful conventionally powered class of boats in the world today. S101 was built in Kiel while her sisters, S102 and S103, are under construction in Emden. S102 is nearing completion having been launched in April this year.
She is expected to commission in mid 2006. S103 is due for launching in 2006 and will commission a year later.
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