SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
July 17:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1755: Doddington, this British East Indiaman wrecked during a storm on a reef off Bird Island in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape. Of the 270 people on board, only 23 survived. When the storm calmed, the survivors boarded the wreck and salvaged what they could to survive. By August, three men headed for the mainland, only to discover a harsh landscape, and one of the men drowning during this expedition. When the other two returned to the island, the survivors worked together and manufactured a sloop using rudimentary forges and saws.
An engraving depicting the wrecking event of the Doddington (1755)
The sloop was aptly named “Happy Deliverance”. They launched it on the 17th of February 1756 and reached Delagoa Bay (modern day Maputo) two months later. The wreck was only discovered in the late ‘70s, and the home of many great white sharks. Salvage work at the time recovered four bronze cannons, many items of historical interest, as well as silver coins. The promise of coins resulted in much treasure hunting and looting over the following years, which damaged the site. So much so, that in 1997, gold coins supposedly from the wreck, which were never declared by any legal salvors, came up for auction in London through a coin collector in Florida. The resulting court case, which went on for four years, highlighted the various shortcomings of maritime law and the difficulties in protecting underwater heritage. Today, the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999, considers wrecks older than 60 years as archaeological and therefore provides them the same protection as archaeological sites and objects.
One of the cannons that was salvaged off the Doddington (1755) in the 1970's
1831: The north-westerly gale that struck Table Bay in the Western Cape the day before raged on and resulted in the loss of a further four vessels:
• Rambler, a wooden-hulled brig, was driven ashore on Woodstock Beach after its cables parted.
• Usk, a wooden-hulled barque, was also driven ashore on Woodstock Beach after its cables parted.
• Calpie, a wooden-hulled brig, was driven ashore on Woodstock Beach.
• Candian, a wooden-hulled barque that was driven foul by the Vine (which wrecked the day before) struck a reef in Table Bay and wrecked.
1836: Doncaster, this wooden-hulled barque (a troopship) wrecked near the Ratel River mouth in the Western Cape. It was on its way from Mauritius to England. It is assumed that more than 80 people were on board when it wrecked, with the bodies of 38 men and boys, and 19 women washing ashore over the next few weeks. The field cornet and his men buried these bodies in the dunes behind the beach. It is understood that there were no survivors and that the washing up of bodies and body parts along the beach was most gruesome.
1851: William Forster, this wooden-hulled schooner wrecked on Thunderbolt reef off Cape Recife in the Eastern Cape.
1862: Johanna Wagner, this wooden-hulled barque wrecked near Strandfontein in False Bay in the Western Cape.
1871: Laetitia, this iron-hulled German schooner wrecked on Fountain Rocks, near the Kowie River mouth in Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape.
1898: Emilia, this barque struck Thunderbolt Reef on this day and foundered at night after being towed into Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape.
1990: Shoestring, this yacht wrecked near Cape Vidal in KwaZulu-Natal.
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