SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
May 29:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1840: Burnham, this wooden British schooner wrecked in a north westerly gale off Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.
1842: Helen, this wooden British barque wrecked at Mouille Point at 22:00 while attempting to enter Table Bay in the Western Cape.
1869: Nossa Senhora da Conceicas, this Portuguese East Indiaman was lost somewhere between Durban and Delagoa Bay off the KwaZulu-Natal coast.
1882: Louisa Dorothea, this German sailing schooner was lost during a gale in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape.
1882: Seafield, this wooden British barque collided with the Roxburgh Castle after its anchor cable broke in East London in the Eastern Cape. Its crew was transported to the Roxburgh Castle and the barque drifted onto Nahoon Point, near Bats Cave, where it was smashed to pieces.
1893: Lucania, this three-masted wooden British brig was beached, after a fire broke out on board, in False Bay in the Western Cape.
1943: U-177, whilst on patrol off Cape Agulhas in the Western Cape attacked convoy CD-20, sinking two ships. On the 28th, just before midnight it fired upon the convoy, striking the Agwimonte, an American steam-powered merchant ship, and the Storaas, a Norwegian steam-powered tanker. In the early hours of the 29th, each ship was sunk by a coup de grâce.
The Storaas (1943), date and location unknown
All those that were on board the Agwimonte survived, but three of the crew of the Storaas lost their lives as they were trapped below deck. The HMSAS Vereeniging picked up most of the survivors except for those that were on board two of the Agwimonte’s boats, which were picked up later by a crash boat after being spotted by an aircraft.
The Agwimonte (1943), date and location unknown
1978: Perina, this motor-powered South African fishing vessel (lobster trawler) foundered off Cape Agulhas in the Western Cape.
Aerial photo/video service/inquiries: info@traveltonamibia.com
