SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
May 16:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1789: Drietal Handelaars, this wooden Dutch Frigate dragged its anchors in a south-easterly gale and wrecked on rocks in False Bay in the Western Cape.
A pen drawing of the Drietal Handelaars (1789), finished as a watercolour, in 1789 by Hendrik Jansen Nagtegaal
1845: Alicia Jane, this wooden sailing brig was loading guano when its cables parted in a north-westerly gale and it was blown ashore on Paternoster beach in the Western Cape where it is assumed to have become a wreck.
1875: Tonga, this wooden British sailing schooner was driven onto rocks just north of the Lovu/Illovu River in KwaZulu-Natal. After being salvaged, a small store was erected near the stream where it wrecked, and its cargo was sold to locals who came from far and wide. It is believed that this is the reason the area today is called “Winkelspruit”, which translates from Afrikaans to ‘stream-store.’
1882: Queen, this South African sailing schooner was transporting a cargo of grain when it wrecked near Hondeklipbaai (Hondeklip Bay) in the Northern Cape.
1898: R A C Smith, this wooden American sailing barquentine wrecked on account of a faulty compass in very heavy weather near the Sundays River mouth in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape. The captain and second mate were lost during the wrecking event.
1973: Gilia, this motor-powered fishing vessel collided with the Oceano Antarctico about 10 km west of Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape and the Gilia promptly foundered.
1988: An Avex Dornier DO.28D Skyservant (registration no. ZS-PRW) encountered engine failure over Mossel Bay in the Western Cape and during the forced landing, struck the roof of a house, with the airplane crashing and being written off. The fates of any occupants are unknown.
An image of ZS-PRW, date and location unknown
2002: New Mexico, this South African fishing vessel wrecked on Dassen Island off the west coast in the Western Cape.
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