The Incredible Rise of the Simon’s Town Submarine Museum
You can’t keep a good sub down
By Annelien Dean
Just as the Cape Town Mayor had predicted at its official opening, the Submarine Museum in Simon’s Town is hot on the heels of the Boulders Beach penguin colony for the title of Simon’s Town’s most popular attraction.
Since opening at its new premises in December last year, the museum had received more than 20 000 visitors in the nine months until end September.
The museum is the reliving of a submarine built in France for the South African Navy 54 years ago. Christened the Johanna van der Merwe when it was built in 1971 and renamed the Assegaai in 1999, the Daphné-class submarine served the Navy until 2003, after which the Navy received three new submarines from Germany.
The devotion and hard work of a tight band of Naval members and civilians twice saved the decommissioned Assegaai submarine from the jaws of the scrapyard. It took a whole 21 years, but at last the Assegaai has risen to the top and now stands proudly on land as Africa’s only submarine museum.
First escape from the scrapyard
Retired Navy Captain John Lamont, one of South Africa’s first submariners, and Retired Rear Admiral (JG) Arné Söderlund are the two surviving members of the original committee constituted when the submarine was decommissioned. It was Söderlund who got the ball rolling. Accompanying the press on a final overnight trip aboard the Assegaai in 2003, he was asked what would become of her. “I told them we hoped to preserve her as a museum.” This then was duly reported in Die Burger and The Cape Times.
Söderlund, still serving in the Navy at the time, submitted to the Chief of the Navy the request that the Assegaai be saved from the scrapyard and rather live on as a museum. It took a year and a half, but permission was gained on condition that there be no costs to the Navy. An Assegaai Preservation Team was formed under the auspices of the Naval Heritage Trust, which had been established in 1994 to preserve and promote South Africa’s naval heritage.
To raise funds, the submarine was opened to visitors during the 2008 Navy Festival, with the enthusiastic response and donations received showing that the best way to raise funds for the museum, would be to have the submarine as a floating museum. A request was then put to the Navy to have the sub placed alongside in harbour and the Navy agreed to it being placed ahead of the old Cable Restorer ship. Here visitors accessed the submarine via a water taxi and later, a bus.
It was opened in this position in December 2010 and from there, “it just ran”, says Söderlund, noting that it racked up 56 000 visitors in the space of five years.
Scrapyard looms again
By 2015, the Assegaai was showing need for intensive care. With extensive corrosion on the submarine’s outer hull, the Navy hoisted her onto a synchro lift. And there she stayed for five years, with the possibility of scrapping ever present. But Söderlund kept his eye trained on her; Lamont had taken her keys just before she was hoisted up, and these he held on to tightly.
After five years of the submarine’s fate hanging in the balance, the Navy said she was in the way and taking up valuable workspace. Söderlund wrote to the Chief of the Navy again, appealing for it to reconsider preserving the Assegaai as a museum. “The Navy came back and said it made sense to do so,” Söderlund says.
A new path of partnership was now discussed and agreed to. The Navy would retain ownership of the submarine and the Naval Heritage Trust would fun and run her. The Assegaai Management Company (NPC) was formed as a non-profit entity for this purpose.
Having the Navy retain ownership enabled the placement of the submarine on a Naval site with Naval facilities. A disused adjunct of the Cole Point parking area was identified and the mammoth project commenced to convert the site into the museum that visitors encounter today.
The submarine was opened to visitors on 16 December and in April this year, the museum had its official launch when calendars could be coordinated between the Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Monde Lobese, and the Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Visitors stream in
Visitors in the past nine months since December last year have given the museum an incredible 4.9 out of 5 stars rating on Google, and enthusiasm bubbles out of comments left in the review section.
Söderlund tells of a lady who was spotted visiting the museum four times. When asked why she had returned so often, she said she had gained different knowledge from each of the four different guides who had led her through the tour.
Among the tour guides are an airline pilot and a very well-known retired surgeon. Guides-in-training include a former shipping agent and an accountant.
Söderlund points out that the Assegaai submarine museum is a rarity even internationally, in that everything inside is still intact. “This was sealed the second we got off,” he says. “What you see here is something else.”
Asked if there may be any other plans in the pipeline, Söderlund can’t help but let two words pass his lips. “More ships,” he says, as he looks towards the open space behind the Assegaai.
Seasoned leaders: Retired Navy Captain John Lamont (left), one of South Africa’s first submariners, and Retired Rear Admiral (JG) Arné Söderlund are the two surviving members of the first committee formed to turn the Assegaai submarine into a museum after it was decommissioned in 2003. Next year marks the 60th year of Soderlund and Lamont’s Naval service and involvement, with both having joined the SA Navy in 1966.
Terra Firma: The Assegaai submarine survived two near brushes with the scrapyard but now stands firmly on the ground at Cole Point.
Gift of labour: The welcoming entrance to the submarine museum boasts a donor wall acknowledging the generous contributions of the many organisations and people who made the museum a reality.
Vessel of learning: The Assegaai is one of the few submarine museums worldwide that is still intact as at its date of decommissioning. It is an acknowledged education asset in South Africa’s science and technology domain.
A toast to the volunteers: Some of the many volunteers who poured their efforts into the raising of the Assegaai as Africa’s only submarine museum, seen at the official opening in April this year.
