SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
See also: Namibian shipwrecks
Today, March 9:
“This day in South African shipwreck History”
1738: Sussex, this British wooden sailing east Indiaman wrecked on Madagascar shoal in KwaZulu-Natal.
1840: La Lise, this wooden sailing cargo ship wrecked near St. Mungo Point off Struisbaai in the Western Cape. It struck a rock at night and went to pieces, with twenty lives being lost and only thirteen surviving.
1943: Tabor, this Norwegian motor-powered freighter was torpedoed and sunk by U-506 about 400 km from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape. The torpedo set the engine room on fire which killed one man and seriously injured the first engineer. All the survivors abandoned ship in four lifeboats shortly before a coup de grâce struck the engine room at 07:14.
The vessel only sank at 08:57 after U-506 started shelling it because it was taking so long to sink. Although the survivors were questioned, the Germans mistakenly reported it as the British ship Pearlmoor. The motorboat and one lifeboat were used to speed ahead with the injured. However, the first engineer died that evening and was buried at sea. The other lifeboats became separated in stormy weather, with the first two, with 22 survivors on board, landing at Still Bay on the 17th of March. On the 18th of March, the third lifeboat, with ten survivors on board, landed at Gansbaai. On the 19th of March, the last of the lifeboats capsized in heavy weather with 12 survivors on board, about 8km off Cape Agulhas. All 12 made it back onto the lifeboat, but the exposure to the cold water and the exhaustion claimed all but two lives. These two men eventually made landfall about 11 km west of Cape Agulhas. The provided image is of the Tabor, date and location unknown.
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