'Southern Africa' arrived in Dover on June 18th 1949. She was a fifty one foot long and built at Rowhedge Ironworks near Colchester. As ON860 she was the first 'Barnett' class lifeboat to be built after WWII. Powered by two 60 BHP 'VE6' diesel engines she was capable of a top speed of 9 knots. This was comparitively slow compared to one of Dover's earlier lifeboats the 'Sir William Hillary'.

She replaced the 'Watson' class lifeboat 'J.B Proudfoot' and was succeeded in 1967 by the 'Waveney' class lifeboat 'Faithful Forester'. Serving at the Station for 18 years she is the longest serving lifeboat to have been stationed at Dover.

This lifeboat was the second of three lifeboats provided by funds from the Southern Africa Branch of the Institution. Countess Mountbatten of Burma, in her role as President of the RNLI's Ladies Guild, visited Dover to christened her on September 16th 1949.

During her time at Dover she was involved in 263 services and credited with saving 186 lives. Some of her services are described in the notable services section of this website.

After leaving Dover she was held in the RNLI's relief fleet until 1981 when she was sold to Chile where she was renamed 'Valparaiso 3' and operated by Bote Salvavidas. She is now back on this side of the Atlantic in private hands in the South west being used as a pleasure boat.