SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
January 10:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1839: Le Protie, this wooden whaling brig wrecked near ‘Farmer Peck’s Farm’ at Strandfontein in False Bay in the Western Cape.
1858: Maria Smith, this sailing cutter wrecked at Hondeklip Bay in the Northern Cape. Very little is known about this vessel.
1886: Hudson, this British ship foundered about 190 km south of Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape. Fifteen of the crew perished, and the one boat that had been launched managed to pick up ten survivors. They drifted for two and half days before they were picked up by the steamship German, which landed them at Plymouth on the 3rd of February.
1943: Meliskerk, this Dutch steam-powered freighter wrecked on a reef north-east of Port St Johns on the east coast in the Eastern Cape. It was a German built freighter, originally named the D.A.D.G. 76, and renamed the Cesario by the British after being claimed for reparations after World War I. Thereafter, the freighter was given to the Dutch who renamed it Meliskerk. Its next years were spent plying the Cape route. During World War II the captain was given strict instructions to keep close to the shore whilst travelling up the east coast of South Africa, on its passage to the Middle East to avoid strong currents and German U-boats.
The Meliskerk (1943) after having run aground, but before it exploded
Unfortunately, whilst hugging the coast it struck an uncharted reef which knocked a hole under the engine room. To prevent the freighter from sinking, it was beached on an apparently sandy beach just north-east of Port St Johns. The freighter lay there whilst a salvage permit was being prepared to salvage the 11 000 tons of war supplies on board, which consisted of ammunition, tanks, and three small planes. About 500 tons had been recovered when in the middle of one night the vessel exploded and disintegrated. According to witness accounts, the violence of the blast, most probably a result of a chemical reaction of friction from being run aground, was such that pieces of the freighter rained down on the nearby coastal villages and kraals. Most of the wreckage now lies in approximately 15 m deep water and it makes for a popular dive.
2011: Africa Charter Services Boeing 737-200 (registration no. ZS-SGX), this passenger jet was written off after, on this day, sustaining damage when it was accidentally reversed down an embankment at night, at Hoedspruit Airport in Limpopo.
Officials investigating ZS-SGX, whilst it is stuck in a ditch
Nearly 100 passengers had just disembarked, and the airplane was to return to Johannesburg with only three crew members on board. Whilst clearing for takeoff, the captain turned off the landing lights to avoid blinding an approaching aircraft and overshot the turning point of the taxiway to the runway in the darkness. Whilst turning around, the main wheels rolled off the taxiway and the airplane became stuck in a ditch.
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