SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
Unknown shipwreck in Namibia
February 7:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1836: Gondolier, this brig wrecked on Robben Island whilst entering Table Bay in the Western Cape.
1862: A H Stevens, this iron barque wrecked on the north-western tip of Robben Island in Table Bay in the Western Cape. It had departed Moulmein on the 11th of December 1861, bound for Falmouth via Cape Town. En route it experienced heavy weather and sprang a leak off Mauritius in a cyclone. The crew worked for two weeks straight, but were unable to pump the barque dry. On the 7th of February 1862, the captain tried to enter Cape Town harbour but missed the entrance to Table Bay due to heavy fog. The barque got too close to the north-western coast of Robben Island, where a lack of wind and a strong current pushed it towards the shore. An attempt to anchor the barque failed, and it continued to drift, finally striking the island. The steamer Albatross was sent to assist the barque but was unable to move it, so it was condemned and sold off.
1865: Equator, this brig wrecked near Struisbaai in the Western Cape.
1871: Trent, this American vessel was damaged in a storm and was then condemned in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape. Whilst at anchor awaiting its fate, it dragged its anchors and wrecked.
1874: Sarah Smith, this vessel was leaving Durban Harbour in KwaZulu-Natal when it drifted onto Anabella Bank and ran aground. Although it was refloated, after an inspection it was condemned and then sold at auction.
1875: Celt, this iron steam-powered mail ship wrecked in the eponymous Celt Bay, between Pearly Beach and Quoin Point in the Western Cape. All 98 passengers and crew survived. It was the last Union Line ship to be built on the Thames and was one of a series of six mail ships built for the Cape mail service.
1890: Onni, this Russian sailing barque missed its stays, resulting in it wrecking near Bloubergstrand in Table Bay in the Western Cape at night in calm weather. It was carrying coal for the Gas Light Company and was sold off after wrecking.
1895: Fascadale, this steel 4-masted sailing barque wrecked on the rocks south of the Mbizane river in Ramsgate in KwaZulu-Natal. It was bound from Java to Lisbon with a cargo of sugar when at 02:30, with most of the crew of 28 being asleep, and in persistent hazy and rainy weather, it ran straight onto the rocks about 100 meters from the shore. It started breaking up immediately and by daybreak wreckage was strewn along the coast. Three men attempted swimming to the shore, with two of them drowning and the third making it. Supposedly, a further five made it by swimming to shore. Eventually the Nordham Castle arrived with the Chief Officer, Frank Whitehead managing to swim a line from one of its boats to the wreck. This line allowed the rest of the crew to be saved. Reports vary on the number of survivors, with some claiming only one life was lost and others as many as ten.
1897: Vilora H Hopkins, this wooden sailing barque’s cables parted during a south-easterly gale and it was driven ashore where it wrecked on New Brighton beach in Port Elizabeth in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape.
1908: Star of the Isles, this steel steam-powered fishing vessel struck a submerged rock about 2.4 km off Quoin Point in the Western Cape at 06:40 in dense fog and then floated for just under three hours before foundering nearby. The crew were safely landed in the lifeboat and walked to the Ratel River farm about 8km inland, where they were taken by wagon to Caledon, and then by train to Cape Town.
1913: Sybil, this British steam-powered vessel wrecked on Porpoise Point at the mouth of the Mzimvubu River in Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape.
1980: Maritz, this South African fishing vessel foundered off Cape Columbine off the west coast in the Western Cape.
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