SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
February 21:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1644: Mauritius Eiland, this Dutch wooden sailing vessel sailed around the southern end of Robben Island in the Western Cape in the dark and then ran aground at what is today known as Mouille Point on the 7th of February. The vessel was dragged off the rocks to be repaired, but worsening weather resulted in it running aground again and becoming a wreck at the Salt River Mouth on this day, where the remaining crew of about 100, reduced from the original 340 had to wait for four months before being rescued by the Tijger.
1839: Trafalgar, this British emigrant ship wrecked near Rocklands Bay (next to Three Anchor Bay) in Cape Town in the Western Cape after missing its stays and dragging its anchor in a heavy swell. The crew and passengers were saved, but a woman was killed by a falling mast.
1849: Claudine, this British wooden barque wrecked between Marthapunt and Ryspunt near Skipskop in the Overberg in the Western Cape. Its bell was reportedly salvaged and used in the Struisbaai church up until at least 1952.
1871: Abdul Medjid, this iron sailing vessel was wrecked when its cables parted in a south easterly gale in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape.
1917: Mendi, this British steam-powered troopship was accidentally rammed on its starboard side by the royal mail steamer, the Darro, at about 05:00 in the morning in heavy fog, just off the Isle of Wight in the English Channel between England and France.
The Mendi Memorial on the 11th of February 2024 after the annual commemoration service
On board were 823 men, most of whom were part of the South African Native Labour Contingent.
Images depicting the last time that some of the men who boarded the SS Mendi (1917) would have spent on southern African soil. The top image shows them at the docks in Cape Town and the bottom image receiving training at the Rosebank Showgrounds, which today forms part of UCT's Lower Campus and is where the Mendi Memorial National Heritage Site is located
This vessel does not lie in South Africa’s territorial waters, but of the close to 650 people who perished in the event, 616 of them were southern African, and the bravery that these men showed at the time makes the sinking of the Mendi an integral part of southern African shipwreck history.
The SS Mendi (1917), date and location unknown
There are at least six known memorials in South Africa, one of which, at the University of Cape Town’s Lower Campus, is a declared National Heritage Site.
1929: Cape Recife, this steel steam-powered freighter wrecked on rocks in dense fog west of Seal Point Lighthouse near Cape St Francis in the Eastern Cape.
The Cape Recife (1929), shortly after wrecking
The wreck can be dived, being on average about 10 m in depth, but with most of it having been salvaged, there is only scattered wreckage still visible.
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| The Annual Mendi Memorial Commemoration held on the 11th of February 2024 at UCT's Lower Campus at the Mendi Memorial National Heritage site |
Image 3:
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| There are seventeen plaques on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton listing the names of those lost in the sinking of SS Mendi |
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