SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
March 28:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1907: Kilbrennan, this steel steam-powered cargo ship wrecked on the Riet Point reef near Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape. It struck the reef and foundered with four lives being lost.
Comment;
Sven Eiki-skogr
Three deceased sailors from the Kilbrennan are buried in the dunes behind the Second Sister at Riet Point. They were Chinese and it was considered too costly to repatriate the bodies. Their graves are marked with sandstone rock cairns. They are not always visible as the dunes shift around over time but you’ll know them when you see them. The mast of the wreck used to be visible in the Boiling Pot which is what the bay carved into the Second Sister is known as. Probably the worst possible place to come aground as the water is always turbulent. Pieces of coal from the wreck could be found after rough seas. I’m not sure if this is still the case.
1931: Istar, this steam-powered yacht was scuttled north-east of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.
1941: SAA Lockheed Lodestar (registration no. SZ-AST), this passenger transport aircraft, whilst en-route from Windhoek (in modern day Namibia) to Cape Town, crashed into a mountain at Elands Bay in the Western Cape in adverse weather conditions.
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| A map of the air disaster from an original newspaper clipping (Cape Times, 29 March 1941) |
The crew of four and six passengers all perished. One of the passengers was Rear Admiral Guy Hallifax, the first director of the South African Seaward Defense Force, who was responsible for the conversion of more than 80 fishing trawlers to military vessels, which formed the backbone of the South African Navy.
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| The South African Naval Museum and Naval Heritage Trust erected this small plaque at the crash site in 2021 |
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