HMS Capetown was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, named after the South African city of Cape Town.

Capetown was in the floating drydock AFD1, which was partially submerged, protecting the cruiser from the worst of the storm.

A sailor from Arabis-class sloop-of-war HMS Valerian, a cook named McKenyon, dove overboard but was unable to save him.

[3][4][5][6] Capetown rescued the 20 survivors of HMS Valerian after Valerian foundered in the Atlantic Ocean 18 nautical miles (33 km) south of Bermuda on 22 October 1926 during a hurricane with the loss of most of her crew,[7][8] having been unable to enter the channel through Bermuda's encircling reefline before the storm swell grew too great.

Calcutta tore up two of the bollards to which she was secured, but otherwise rode out the storm safely, unlike her sister ship, HMS Calcutta, which had been tied to the wharf in the South Yard with forty hawsers, all of which snapped when the windspeed reached 138 mph (the highest speed recorded before the storm destroyed the dockyard's anemometer).

Both whalers and 3 Carley Floats lost") while she rode out the storm offshore, was instructed at 16:10 on the 22nd to attempt to contact Valerian, which had "Am hove-to 5 miles south of Gibb's Hill" at 08:30 (and which had already gone down at 13:00).

[13] The following day, 23 October, Capetown signalled that two men had been sighted on a raft at 31.59 North, 64.45 West.

[14] Capetown spent a large part of her career with the Eastern Fleet, including a period between the wars from July 1934 until August 1938, when she returned to the United Kingdom for a refit.

During the Normandy landings in June 1944 Capetown was deployed as a Shuttle Control/Depot ship at Mulberry A placed to seaward in order to direct incoming convoys to berths or anchorages.

[16] Shuttle Control Command was responsible for keeping the Army informed of expected arrivals and directing them to the proper unloading sectors.