South African Naval College, Naval training institution in Saldanha, South Africa

The South African Naval College is a military training institution in Saldanha, a port town on the west coast of South Africa, where naval officers receive their education. The site sits directly on Saldanha Bay, giving trainees access to open water for hands-on exercises.

HMS Thames was a Mersey-class cruiser launched in 1885 for the Royal Navy; in 1920 the businessman Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis bought her from the British Admiralty and donated her to South Africa for full-time training of boys for careers at sea. Renamed TS General Botha, she was moored in Simon's Bay, and the first intake of 75 boys joined on 15 March 1922. In 1942 the cadets moved to Red Hill, and on 13 May 1947 the ship was towed into False Bay and sunk by gunfire from Scala battery. The cadets moved to the former SAAF crash boat station at Gordons Bay in April 1948, and in 1958 the government placed the establishment under the South African Navy.

The college's name honours General Botha, the South African prime minister after whom the training ship TS General Botha was renamed. When the first intake of 75 boys joined in Simon's Bay on 15 March 1922, General Botha's wife was to christen the ship but was unwell, so Isie Smuts officiated on 1 April 1922. The ship stayed in Simon's Bay for twenty years, training 1,276 cadets.

Access to the grounds is restricted as it is an active military facility, so visitors should seek permission well in advance before planning a visit. The surrounding town of Saldanha has places to stay and eat within easy reach of the site.

For decades, officer training took place entirely on board a ship anchored in the bay, with no land building involved at all. This makes the college one of the few military schools in the world to have started its life entirely at sea.