South African Shipwrecks

Kakapo Shipwreck -

Kakapo, Noordhoek Beach, Cape Town. 26 May 1900.
The skeleton of the boat is now an important landmark. The Kakapo left Cape Town for Sydney on a misty night. Captain Nicolaysen saw Chapman's Peak and thought it was Cape Point. He turned sharp east but instead of cruising into False Bay he 'parked' his boat on Noordhoek Beach. The Slangkop Lighthouse has prevented such mishaps from recurring since 1918. Captain Nicolaysen ploughed so deep into the dune that his crew could step out of the boat without getting their feet wet! Today horse riders and visitors to Noordhoek Beach explore the skeleton of his boat.
The Kakapo shipwreck is one, of what must be very few, completely visible shipwrecks in the world.

Shipwrecks

Some of the better-known wrecks dotted along the Western Cape coast include:
• The Arniston – a British East Indiaman, wrecked near Waenhuiskrans in 1815
• The HMS Birkenhead – an iron-hulled troopship that struck the rocks near Gansbaai in 1852
• The HMS Guardian – a 44-gun Roebuck class ship damaged by an iceberg in 1789
• The Joanna – a gold-laden first East Indiaman wrecked near Cape Town in 1682
• The SS Maor

 

The Wreck of the Jahleel

The September 2003 wreck of Port Elizabeth harbour's former pilot boat, the Jahleel – converted to a diamond gravel boat, is battered by icy Atlantic breakers off Hondeklipbaai.

i – a steamship wrecked near Llandudno in 1909
• The HMS Sceptre – a 64-gun Royal Navy vessel wrecked near the Cape of Good Hope in 1799
• The HMS Thames – a former cruiser that later became a training ship that was scuttled in 1947
• The SS Thomas T Tucker – a munitions carrier that ran ashore at Olifantsbos point in 1942

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