SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
March 7:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1766: Meermin, this wooden vessel wrecked near Struisbaai in the Western Cape. In 1765 the VOC sent this vessel to Madagascar to procure enslaved people for the growing Cape colony. The Meermin took 140 enslaved people on board. During the return passage to the Cape, its skipper, Gerrit Mulder removed their iron shackles, and on the 18th of February 1766 the supercargo forced the enslaved people to work. The enslaved people used this opportunity for mutiny, killing the supercargo and the rest of the deck watch, in total 24 men. The remaining 29 members of the crew were shut below decks. After two days, through the mediation of one of the enslaved woman, it was agreed that the crew would not be harmed if they returned those on board to Madagascar. The crew were allowed back on deck, but instead of setting course for the island, they made for Cape Agulhas. Four days later land was sighted, and while still some kilometres from the shore the enslaved people ordered the anchors to be dropped and some went ashore in the longboat and pinnace, promising to light fires ashore should everything be safe.
On landing they saw the nearby house of Matthys Rostock and realised that they had been deceived. The local farmers banded together and when the enslaved people refused to surrender, they were attacked, resulting in the killing 14 of enslaved people and the capture of the rest. Meanwhile, those aboard the Meermin were getting impatient when the boats failed to return. Members of the crew wrote messages describing the situation, placed them in bottles and dropped them overboard.
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| Season 10, Episode 2 of the PBS documentary Secrets of the Dead, "Slave Ship Mutiny", tracks the archaeological research efforts in trying to locate the wreck of the Meermin (1766). The documentary even includes an interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu |
Two of these messages washed ashore and were picked up. They asked that three fires be lit on the shore. When the enslaved people still on board saw the fires, they cut the cables and took the Meermin close inshore. Six enslaved people then went ashore in a canoe but were surrounded immediately as they landed, with one man being shot, and the rest captured. Seeing what had happened, the enslaved people still aboard the vessel set upon the crew, and a skirmish raged on until the vessel ran aground. Eventually the enslaved people surrendered. In the end, the Meermin could not be re-floated and went to pieces where it struck, and the surviving 112 enslaved people made it to the Cape where they were sold off. The VOC salvaged most of the cargo at the time and there has been ongoing research by maritime archaeologist Jaco Boshoff of Iziko Museums for the past 20 years attempting to locate the wreck. There is an episode of a PBS documentary, Secrets of the Dead, that follows these research efforts.
1853: Sophia, this wooden sailing schooner wrecked near Witsand beach on the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape.
1911: Palatinia, this four-masted steel (sail and steam powered) freighter wrecked at the Inkyanza/Blind River Mouth on Eastern Beach in East London in the Eastern Cape.
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| The Palatinia (1911) aground off East London |
It was beached there in a sinking condition after having struck an object at sea and then it became a wreck.
1934: Ben Holden, this South African steel steam-powered fishing trawler struck Madagascar Reef several times before slipping into deeper waters and then finally drifting ashore near the Birha River Mouth in the Eastern Cape where it became a wreck.
1943: Sabor, this British steam-powered merchant ship was torpedoed and sunk in the early morning hours by U-506 approximately 98 km southeast of Mossel Bay in the Western Cape.
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| The Sabor (1943), date and location unknown |
It was on its way from Port Said (Egypt) to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) with a cargo of salt ballast and bags of mail. Seven crew members lost their lives, and the remaining 51 survivors were rescued by SAAF crash launch R-8 and landed at Mossel Bay.
2008: An Invicta Bearings Beechcraft B200 (registration no. ZS-LFU) was damaged beyond repair at Cape Town International Airport when the left wing’s landing gear collapsed shortly after landing. The pilot managed to keep the landing straight, but the dipping left wing sustained much damage when the aircraft finally came to a halt.
