SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage
December 12:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1819: Adolphus, this wooden sailing brig wrecked as a result of incorrect signaling from the shore, whilst crossing the bar at the Knysna Heads in the Western Cape.
1835: Circe, this wooden sailing vessel left Algoa Bay for Port Natal on this day, never to be seen or heard from again.
1874: Florie, this wooden sailing barque wrecked in a south-westerly gale near the Blind River in East London in the Eastern Cape with the loss of one life.
1885: Sea Nymph/Seenymphe, this German sailing schooner wrecked on the outer bar in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. After having run aground two weeks earlier, an easterly gale sprung up and the vessel was abandoned. By dawn, the vessel had reportedly been smashed to pieces.
1932: Evylyn, this steam powered fishing vessel was scuttled off the coast of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.
1946: During salvage of the City of Lincoln, which had run aground and wrecked on the 9th of November, west of Quoin Point in the Western Cape, the two steam-driven salvage vessels, the Fynd and Swona, had lines tangle in both vessel’s propellers and they wrecked.
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| The Swona (1946), 1925, location unknown |
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| The Fynd (1946), on the left, and the Swona (1946), on the right, after wrecking |
The City of Lincoln was refloated and scuttled in deeper waters in 1950, with the remains of the Fynd reportedly still visible at low tide as well as some of the remaining cargo of the City of Lincoln, such as the engine blocks of vehicles it was transporting.
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| The Fynd (1946), date and location unknown |
1978: Good Hope, this steam-powered South African loch class frigate was scuttled in Smitswinkel Bay in False Bay in the Western Cape.
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| The SAS Good Hope (1978) in presumably False Bay, date unknown |
The site lies at about 30m in depth and makes for a beautiful dive along with the other wrecks that were scuttled to form artificial reefs in Smitswinkel Bay.
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| A section of the lattice mast of the SAS Good Hope (1978), that was still upright in 2006, which has since collapsed |
