It was built as HMS Loch Cree (K430) for the Royal Navy during World War II, but was transferred to the SAN before completion in 1945 and renamed as HMSAS Natal.

The ship carried 730 long tons (740 t) of fuel oil that gave it a range of 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km; 10,900 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

As part of the conversion into a survey ship in 1954–55, it was disarmed and its interior was remodelled to include a drawing office for nautical charts and a combined laboratory and darkroom.

[4] Natal was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at its shipyard in Wallsend, laid down on 18 October 1943, launched on 19 June 1944[5] and commissioned on 1 March 1945.

En route to HMS Western Isles in Tobermory, Mull, for working up, it sank the German submarine U-714 on 14 March, only four hours after having left its builder's shipyard.

[6] Natal was assigned to the 8th Escort Group of the Western Approaches Command; it encountered another U-boat on 26 April, but equipment failures prevented a successful attack.

In September–October, it escorted convoys in and around Malaya and Singapore before it was tasked to replace the light cruiser HMS Nigeria as guardship at Sabang, Sumatra.

The ship and her sisters Good Hope and Transvaal repatriated some 700 troops from Egypt between November 1945 and March 1946 and escorted the battleship HMS Vanguard while it was serving as the royal yacht during King George VI's tour of South Africa in 1947.

The ship was sunk as a target off the Cape of Good Hope by gunfire from the frigate President Steyn and depth charges dropped by Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft of the South African Air Force[8] on 19 September 1972.