SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
April 14:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1928: Kingfisher, this iron steam-powered trawler’s mooring cable snapped during a south-easterly gale and it drifted onto Santos Beach in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape, where it wrecked. There is an alternative date of wrecking for the 9th of April instead.
1976: Vrystaat, this steam-powered frigate was scuttled (torpedoed by the submarine SAS Maria van Riebeeck as a practice target) southwest of Cape Point off the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape.
The SAS Vrystaat (1976) entering Durban Harbour, date unknown
It has been reported to the unit that this was the first time in the SA Navy’s history that a live torpedo firing was carried out in SA waters by a South African crewed submarine.
The SAS Vrystaat (1976) going under after the successful torpedoing
The SA Naval Museum has a model of the SAS Vrystaat (1976) on display
1982: A Magnum Swearington SA226 Metro II (registration no. ZS-KYA), this scheduled revenue flight is recorded as having crashed somewhere in South Africa with no loss of lives. Very little is known about the incident.
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