It was built as HMS Loch Boisdale (K432) for the Royal Navy during World War II, but was transferred to the SAN before completion in 1944 and renamed as HMSAS Good Hope.

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).

[2] In preparation for her reclassification as a despatch vessel/training ship in 1955, Good Hope's Oerlikons were replaced by a pair of 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors light AA guns on the Squid deck forward of the bridge wings and her depth charges and their gear was removed.

During her refit in early 1958, Good Hope's main armament was replaced by a twin-gun turret fitted with more powerful four-inch Mk XVI guns.

[7] Good Hope and her sisters Natal 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.

Later that year, it conveyed the Governor General of South Africa, Ernest George Jansen, on a goodwill visit to French Madagascar.

The ship was refitted in Simon's Town in early 1958 and transported Biermann to Portuguese West Africa and the Belgian Congo in August 1959.

After stripping it of all valuable metals and fittings, Good Hope's hulk was donated to the False Bay Conservation Society for use as an artificial reef.