SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
Montrose shipwreck in Skeleton Coast, Namibia
June 6:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1817: L'Alouette, this wooden French sailing ship wrecked near Olifantsbos on the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape. One child drowned during the wrecking.
1848: Chieftain, this wooden British brig wrecked after drifting onto rocks just west of the Mouille Point lighthouse at around 03:00 while attempting to enter Table Bay in the Western Cape.
1857: Gentana, this sailing brigantine wrecked in a north-westerly gale in Table Bay in the Western Cape.
1882: Louise Scheller, this German barque wrecked in a north-westerly gale near Cape Hangklip in the Western Cape.
1918: Linga, this French steel-hulled steam-powered whaler became a wreck after becoming stranded off Park Rynie in KwaZulu-Natal.
1943: William King, this American freighter was torpedoed and sunk by U-198 about 320 km east of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. The first torpedo caused an explosion that killed three men and opened a large hole as well as destroying the port boiler and two lifeboats. The survivors abandoned ship in two lifeboats and two rafts and a coup de grâce sunk the William King 10 minutes later. The Master was taken as prisoner. The two rafts and one of the lifeboats were picked up 36 hours later by the HMS Northern Chief and the other lifeboat six days after the attack by the HMS Relentless. Another man was lost and two of the crew died of burns in one of the lifeboats, bringing the total casualties from the event to six.
1976: Hung Mou Hao, this motor-powered fishing vessel exploded and sank near Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape.
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