SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
May 7:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1785: Pigot, this French East Indiaman was lost off Cape St. Francis in the Eastern Cape. Very little is known about it.
1857: Barrys 2, this South African sailing schooner wrecked after its engine room flooded during a south-westerly gale while crossing the bar at the Breede River mouth in the Western Cape. The captain and two women were lost.
1884: Bulli, this Australian steam-powered ship wrecked on Paternoster Point in the Western Cape in dense fog.
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| The Tantallon Castle (1901), date and location unknown |
1901: Tantallon Castle, this steam-powered British mail ship ran aground on Robben Island in Table Bay in the Western Cape in thick fog on a flat sea.
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| The Tantallon Castle (1901) after running aground on Robben Island |
Although reversing was attempted to get it off, it started listing to starboard, so a signal gun was fired and all 120 of its passengers were taken off. Several tugs tried to tow it off without success. Two days later, after the holds started flooding, its cargo was rescued and by the 15th of May, its masts and funnel had disappeared with only bits of the hull still left to be seen.
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| The Tantallon Castle (1901), a few days after wrecking, the sea started breaking it up |
1916: Natal, this steam-powered British-South African fishing vessel (probably finishing its life as a whaler) ran ashore and wrecked near Cape Hangklip, whilst trying to enter Stony Bay in the Western Cape. It had a long life, first serving as a passenger tender and tug in Durban. Thereafter it was used by the Caste Line to carry mail between Durban and East London. It then served in the Boer War in Cape Town ferrying passengers and goods because of the congestion in Cape Town harbour. After the war, it returned to Durban, now under the African Boating Company, and after 12 years of service it was sold to the Cape Town City Steamers where it was renamed Sir Fred and used in Cape Town as a pleasure steamer. Its final owner, Alfred James Parker, reverted its name to Natal and it was used as a fishing vessel, possibly a whaler, when it ran ashore and wrecked.
1993: Sneeugans, this motor-powered South African fishing vessel foundered about 3 km from the Gansbaai harbour in the Western Cape after its engine room flooded.
1998: An Eswatini registered Antonov An-32B (registration no. 3D-DRV), crashed on a small airstrip about 30 km outside of Vaalwater in Limpopo. Smoke had appeared behind the pilot’s seat and an emergency descent finished with the left wing striking a tree and the nose gear collapsing. The four people on board were unharmed but the plane was damaged beyond repair.
2014: Ingrid, this South African yacht wrecked during storm near Oyster Bay in the Eastern Cape.
