SAS Somerset Vessel

The SAS Somerset was officially handed over to the SA Maritime Museum – a satellite of the then SA Cultural History Museum – on 2 September 1988 by the South African Navy.Originally named the HMS Barcross, the ship was built for the Royal Navy in the Blythe Shipyard in 1941 and launched in the same year. She was the first in a class of 76 similar boom defence vessels which were built during World War II. After being commissioned in 1942, she sailed to South Africa where she was stationed in Saldanha Bay, laying and servicing booms. On 23 January 1943 she was renamed HMSAS Barcross, a name she kept until 1947 when she was laid up at the Salisbury Island Naval Base in Durban. In 1951 the vessel was renamed the SAS Somerset and re-commissioned as part of the South African Navy; and operational duties were restricted to salvage.