SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
Frotamerica wreck in Namibia
December 27:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1794: The São José was a Portuguese slave ship which sank off what is today known as Clifton 2nd beach in Cape Town in the Western Cape. At the time of wrecking, it was carrying 512 enslaved people from Mozambique who were destined for Brazil, during a time when the slave trade between the two countries was just emerging. The ship’s voyage, although unsuccessful in its mission to bring enslaved people to Brazil, was an important precedent for the sourcing of enslaved people from East Africa, something which ultimately contributed to the establishment of the Atlantic Slave Trade. At about 02:00, the São José, having left Mozambique some three weeks earlier, struck submerged rocks about 100 m off the beach during a storm. All the crew were rescued but only about half of the enslaved people made it to shore, with the rest perishing with the ship, most still shackled below deck. The enslaved people that were fortunate enough to survive the wrecking were sold into slavery in Cape Town.
For 200 years the wreck lay undiscovered, until local divers stumbled upon it in the 1980s and misidentified it as a Dutch merchant vessel. After five years of careful archival work, the wreck was identified correctly in 2015 and the first artefacts were brought to the surface. The São José is the only slave shipwreck to have been excavated and scientifically studied off the coast of South Africa. As such, one of the primary categories of significance lies in the site’s scientific value. The story of the wrecking makes this site particularly special because of the links it establishes between the enslaved people’s home country of Mozambique, the Portuguese origins of the ship, the ship’s intended destination of Brazil, and its final resting place off the South African south-west coast. The site was declared a National Heritage Site in 2018.
For more information on the wreck, please go and visit the Iziko Slave Lodge to see the permanent physical exhibition.
1840: Australia, this wooden sailing brig caught on fire, exploded, and foundered north of the Oliphants River mouth near the modern-day border between the Western Cape and Northern Cape. Reports vary, but either one or two people died because of the wrecking.
1976: Mary Kate, this motor-powered fishing trawler foundered off Amanzimtoti in KwaZulu-Natal.
Aerial photo/video service/inquiries: info@traveltonamibia.com
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