jumped over the side of the vessel before arrival in Cape Town. Mission The mission of S. A. Agulhas included regular visits to South Africa's base on Antarctica, and to research stations on Gough Island and Marion Island. Retirement from polar mission and new role S. A. Agulhas retired from polar supply missions in March 2012, when its replacement, S. A. Agulhas II, arrived. The Oceans and Coasts Branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs announced in 2011 that several other government agencies had requested the vessel's transfer, noting that, unlike the new vessel, the first was not designed to carry out scientific research, just icebreaking and that the capability to perform scientific research had been added later. It was also reported that the vessel could be insured for a further two years. In July 2012 the S. A. Agulhas was recommissioned as a training ship operated by the South African Maritime Safety Authority, the ship will continue to provide facilities for scientific research while training up to seventy merchant marine cadets. Having undertaken a brief "shakedown" cruise from 4 July 2012, the ship left Cape Town on 2 November 2012 on the first full cruise as a training vessel. Included in the itinerary were visits to Tema and Abidjan to take on additional cadets from Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, while en route to London, UK. After returning to Cape Town, the ship then visited Antarctica. During the cruise various scientific experiments and observations were completed for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Departments of Science and Technology and Environmental Affairs. In 2013, the vessel delivered The Coldest Journey team, which was an Antarctica winter crossing expedition led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes in support of the charity "Seeing is Believing". See also References External links South African Maritime Safety Authority - The present owners (Official website). South African National Antarctic Programme - The previous owners (Official website). Agulhas Maritime history of South Africa South African National Antarctic Programme 1977 ships Research vessels Training ships