SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
July 3:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1728: A north-westerly gale in Table Bay in the Western Cape drove two wooden Dutch East Indiamen ashore, causing them to wreck:
• Middenrak, wrecked just North of the Salt River mouth with the loss of life of all 116 on board as the storm and the raging surf made rescue attempts impossible.
• Stabroek, wrecked between the Castle and the mouth of the Salt River with 2 lives being lost.
1860: Sarah Charlotte, this wooden British brig wrecked in a north-westerly gale when its cables parted in Table Bay in the Western Cape.
1886: Twilight, this Austrian vessel was beached to become a wreck in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape after having been condemned a month earlier after arriving in a leaky condition.
1964: A SAAF Douglas DC-3 (registration no. 6875) was damaged beyond repair at the Rand Airport in Gauteng after a fire broke out on the ground.
1989: Meng Yaw No 366, this Taiwanese fishing trawler wrecked in heavy weather at Heidebaai between the Tsitsikamma River mouth and Oyster Bay in the Eastern Cape.
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| Meng Yaw (1989) in 1996, 7 years after wrecking. Today the wreck site is completely submerged |
1990: Petingo, this 80 000 ton bulk ore carrier became stranded on a sandbank in heavy weather just off Port Dunford, near Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal.
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| Shortly after the Petingo (1990) started sinking |
When it started breaking up, 200 tons of fuel leaked into the ocean and the remaining 1400 tons were released with explosives in the hope that prevailing winds would carry it to the open ocean. Despite this, major pollution of the nearby beaches still occurred. The wreck now lies at its deepest at about 30 m, but parts of it are as shallow as 8 m.
