SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
March 3:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1854: Mary Jenkins, this coaster foundered near the Mtata River in the Eastern Cape with the loss of all that were on board.
1882: Queen of Ceylon, this wooden sailing barque wrecked on Back Beach in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Its cables parted in a strong north-easterly gale and after putting down a second anchor, it also parted. It was then driven onto another barque before finally being driven ashore where it became a total wreck.
1943: U-160 terrorised South African waters by attacking transport convoys that were delivering supplies for the war effort, claiming in total six ships and causing damage to two more over the course of nine days. On this day, U-160 struck three and claimed two vessels after attacking convoy DN21 at 23:22, about 90 km south east of Port St Johns off the Eastern Cape coast.
An image of U-160 captured from U-177 in April 1943. U-160 was sunk in June 1943 off the Azores islands in the North Atlantic by American aircrafts
The Tibia was also struck in this event but had a history of surviving attacks by U-Boats as it had survived a torpedo attack by U-79 in 1941 whilst part of a convoy crossing the Atlantic.
The Tibia leaving Table Bay harbour, date and location unknown
After the attack on this day, by U-160, the crew managed to nurse the flooding and listing vessel back to Durban by 17:40 the next day, where it was repaired and served for many years until being scrapped in 1962. The other two vessels were not as fortunate:
• Harvey W Scott, this American Liberty ship (steam-powered) was struck on the port side by a single torpedo. The ship was completely abandoned within 11 minutes in the four lifeboats. The Ombu picked up 16 survivors in one boat and landed them at Durban. The other three lifeboats all eventually made landfall around Port St Johns.
• Nirpura, this British steam-powered merchant ship was sunk by U-160 with 38 men being lost and 88 survivors being picked up by the SAAF crash launch R-8 which landed them at Durban.
The Nirpura (1943), date and location unknown
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