SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
May 11:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1786: Holland, this wooden Dutch sailing frigate attempted to enter False Bay by with a fleet of warships when it struck a reef at night and subsequently wrecked, near Olifantsbos on the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape. Eight lives were lost during the wrecking.
1877: Sealkote, this British vessel started leaking and was abandoned, presumably to have foundered, off Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape. Very little is known about this vessel and the event.
1883: Kolstrop, this German brigantine struck a rock off Dyer island in the Western Cape at night and sank. All that were on board were picked up by the cutter Volunteer.
1943: Nailsea Meadow, this British freighter was torpedoed and sunk just before midnight by the German U-boat U-196 near Port St. Johns in the Eastern Cape.
The Nailsea Meadow (1943) undergoing sea trials
Two crew members were lost, but everyone else was picked up by the SAAF crash launch R6 and landed at East London the following day. The wreck of the Nailsea Meadow was discovered in 1997 during an expedition to find the legendary SS Waratah (1909) which was lost without a trace on a voyage between Durban to Cape Town in heavy seas.
The Submersible used by the team to visually identify the Nailsea Meadow (1943)
Emlyn Brown working with the National Underwater and Marine Agency and author Clive Cussler located an unknown wreck and initial scans of its profile led them to believe that it might be the SS Waratah.
One of the observed tanks on board the Nailsea Meadow (1943)
In 2001, after a visual survey using a submersible, it was declared that the wreck which they had hoped to be the famous SS Waratah (1909) was in fact the Nailsea Meadow.
A close-up of one of the tank's tracks on board the Nailsea Meadow (1943)
The wreck lies at around 117 m in depth with tanks and other equipment still visible.
1975: Knudsen, this motor-powered whaler was scuttled by the South African Navy off Durban off in KwaZulu-Natal.
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