SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
Unknown wreck in Walvis Bay, Namibia
September 24:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1782: Le Victor, this wooden sailing corvette wrecked in a north-westerly gale at the Salt River mouth in Table Bay in the Western Cape. Records indicate that ‘nearly’ all aboard were saved, but the exact number of casualties is unknown. The wreck now lies beneath reclaimed land.
1826: Martha, this wooden sailing brig wrecked on the eponymous Martha Reef at Martha Point northeast of Arniston/Waenhuiskrans in the Western Cape.
1900: Suffolk, this four-masted steel steam-powered ship wrecked west of Cape St Francis near Tsitsikamma Point in the Eastern Cape after striking a reef and its holds flooding. A smaller steamer, the Lake Erie, was passing nearby and rescued all that were on board. However, the 900 horses that were being transported were left on board the ship, which disappeared below the waves later in the day. Wreckage washed up as far west as the Great Brak River and later investigations by the authorities found that many of the farm houses had used timber from the wreck that had washed up as there was a Troop letter stamped into the timber used for the horse stalls which made identification quite easy.
1996: Flatdog, this South African yacht collided with a fishing vessel in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape and whilst being towed back for repairs, it foundered.
2009: A SA Airlink British Aerospace Jetstream 41 (registration no. ZS-NRM) suffered an engine failure shortly after taking from Durban International Airport in KwaZulu-Natal and crash landed about 1.6 km from its takeoff runway in the Merebank residential area, skidding through an electrical pole, over a road, and eventually coming to rest against a concrete palisade. The two pilots and one flight attendant on board were seriously injured, with the one pilot succumbing to his injuries on the 7th of October. The wing of the airplane also clipped a member of the public who was seriously injured.
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