Shipwrecks Along Our Coastline

Seven shipwrecks surround Danger Point Peninsula and 140 wrecks are dotted along the shores between Danger Point and Cape Infanta. The highest concentrations of shipwrecks can be found around Cape Agulhas, Arniston and Quoin Point. Yet Danger Point was given the most impressive name. Perhaps it is an applicable name for the spot where the legendary “Flying Dutchman” was first seen.

Local historian SD Fourie has recorded the story of the unfortunate Captain van der Decken:

1. The Flying Dutchman

“……..the captain is driving his ship mercilessly off the Cape in heavy weather. Sails are lost, decks are flooded, and the seamen beseech him to give up the attempt to round the Cape. Van der Decken lashes himself to the wheel and carries on, swearing that even God will not force him to change his mind. His blasphemous oath is heard. Out of the dark and ominous sky falls a brilliant shaft of light, and the Holy Ghost steps on to the deck. Van der Decken draws a pistol from his belt and fires. His arm falls withered at his side, and the Holy Ghost delivers sentence: “You have defied the wrath of God, and now you will sail these seas until the end of time. You will know thirst and hunger, but never will you know calm seas again. Henceforward you will bring misfortune to all who sight you.”

Captain Owen, R.N., who charted long stretches of the South African Coast, declared that he saw the flying Dutchman. The encounter appears in the logbook of H.M.S. Leven, dated 6 April, 1823. Owen was near Danger Point and bound for Simon’s Bay when he thought he saw his consort, H.M.S. Barracouta. This appearance surprised him as Barracouta had been ordered elsewhere. The Leven did not attempt to make close contact. When she reached Simons’s Bay she waited for a week before the Barracouta arrived. They compared log-books, and it was found that the two naval ships were three hundred miles apart when Owen intercepted the mystery ship.

Far more famous was the encounter near Danger Point witnessed by Prince Albert Victor and Prince George of Wales, later King George V. The young princes were both midshipmen, cruising in H.M.S. Bachante. The meeting was entered in the log-book as follows:

“July 11, 1881. During the middle-watch the so called Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. She first appeared as a strange red light, as of a ship aglow, in the midst of which light her masts, spars and sails, seemingly those of a normal brig, some two hundred yards distant from us, stood out in long relief as she came up.” The report in the log-book went on, describing the ship in the smallest detail. Thirteen people saw the ghost-ship, but whether it was the Flying Dutchman or one of the other few alleged phantom ships which are reputed to haunt this area, must remain unknown.

London newspapers in 1911 published a message describing an American whaler off the Cape that had almost collided with a sailing ship believed to be the Flying Dutchman. Cape Town papers early in 1939 described a queer experience in False Bay, when people on the beaches saw a sailing ship beating up towards Muizenberg. It seemed that the ship would run into the breakers, but just before reaching the shallows she vanished. They all swore they had seen the Flying Dutchman.

Koen Kano, the Baron Von Münchhausen of Gansbaai, was one of the best storytellers in the Strandveld. He used to tell that he met Captain Van der Decken and his fateful ship while fishing off Dyer Island. He thought they might like to have some fish and approached the ship. Van der Decken asked him to fetch anybody in Gansbaai who could beat him at swearing. Maybe such a man could help him round the Cape of Storms. Koen fetched a well known fisherman, full of grog at the local bar and between the two of them they helped the Flying Dutchman round the Cape. “For keeps. That devil would not dare to fish again in Gansbaai seas!” said Koen. (Almost forgotten, never told, Lawrence G. Green. Wisselstrale oor die Strandveld, Jan Fourie.)

2. Birkenhead

Some ships wreck without a trace and are quickly forgotten; nobody talks or writes about them; just another blank spot in history. Other ships go down and are world news the next day. Geographical spots are named after them and they stay in the collective mind forever. Nearby Waenhuiskrans, a fishing village on a secluded small bay, to the east of Danger Point, is now know as Arniston, after the HMS Arniston that wrecked there in 19th century. The HMT Birkenhead is another ship that lives on in the minds of people. She struck a rock, 1 km out in sea from Danger Point. The fact that the rock was later named after the unfortunate ship, is only a very modest tribute: it is a submerged rock and its presence can only be noticed from shore by the waves that break over it. The name Birkenhead also lives on in the name of a guesthouse on Danger Point Peninsula and in the Birkenhead Brewery near Stanford. Neither the rock, nor the beer or the guesthouse is however the reason for the world-fame of the Birkenhead. It is the drill that was named after the Birkenhead (the “Birkenhead-drill”) that makes us remember the fate of the people on board and why some perished and some lived. It is a story of unimaginable discipline and will-power.

There were 638 people on board this troopship when she left Simons Town on the 25th of February of 1852: 138 ship’s officers and crew, 480 army officers and men and 20 women and children. The soldiers were on their way to fight in the eighth “Frontier war” that was being fought in the Eastern Cape.

When, on the 26th, she struck the rock that now carries her name, the lower deck was instantly flooded, drowning some of the men in their bunks. Captain Salmond made a disastrous decision when he ordered the Birkenhead to be put astern. As a consequence the hull ripped open further and the ship started breaking apart. It seems to be almost a tradition in the case of famous shipwrecks: the lifeboats were not maintained and thick layers of paint connected them firmly to the Birkenhead. Only three boats could be freed and the women and children were rowed from the ship. While this happened the soldiers, commandeered by Lieutenant-Colonel Seton, stood in line on deck awaiting orders. When Captain Salmond, in desperation, shouted that all who could swim should jump and make it to the boats, Seton told his man to stand firm. He was afraid that if his men would make it to the boats, the boats would become too full and this would put the lives of the women and children in danger. The boats made it safely to shore while the Birkenhead broke up quickly. Less than half an hour after she struck the rock, only the top-mast was above water with 50 hopeless men hanging on to it. 445 people died and 193 (including all women and children) survived.

On the 26th of February 1852, the principle of women-and-children-first got its name: “The Birkenhead drill”. The horses that were on board swam to shore and local folklore has it that they roamed freely as a wild herd in the plains of the “Strandveld” until well into the 20th century.

Another story tells of an enormous gold-treasure on board of the Birkenhead, but the only gold that was salvaged in later years were some coins out of private purses. A large collection of Birkenhead relics and remains can be seen in the Strandveld Museum at the cliffs of Franskraal just off Danger Point Peninsula. From Danger Point, were in 1895 the present Danger Point lighthouse was erected, the waves over the submerged rock are a continuous echo of the disaster. A remembrance plate for the Birkenhead, below the lighthouse, has an arrow pointing to the exact location.

3. Tyndareus

It happens now and then. A person in perfectly good health is reading the obituaries in the newspaper and he or she -in shock- sees his or her own name mentioned erroneously as a person recently deceased. Ships cannot read, but something similar has happened to the Tyndareus. Some accounts and maps lead us to believe that the Tyndareus sank on the west-coast of Danger Point Peninsula in 1917. However, she ended her life long after that when she was broken up in 1960 in Hong Kong.

The Tyndareus did indeed strike a mine laid by the German raider Wolff just off Danger Point. The explosion blew an enormous hole in her hull and -head first- she began to sink. The 1300 officers and soldiers on board “with exemplary discipline” took to the life boats and all made it safely to a nearby hospital ship that had answered the call for help.

The Tyndareus, completed in 1916 and built according to new designs developed after the sinking of the Titanic, however refused to sink all the way. With her head under water, the Tyndareus was towed to the naval base of Simon’s Town where she was repaired and from where she embarked on her second life. In WW II she also served as a troop ship. After WW II the Tyndareus became a pilgrim-ship on the route between Indonesia and Mecca until she was dismantled in 1960, half way around the globe from Danger Point.

4. Quoin Point Shipwrecks

Quoin Point is the outer eastern point of the Danger Point Peninsula area and the second most southern tip of the African continent. A beautiful empty sand beach stretches from the Buffeljags-settlement to Quoin Point. On the maps it is called Jessies Bay, but locals call it “die Walle” (the walls). High straight dunes, eroded in the most fantastic shapes, tower over Jessies Bay. Despite the beauty on shore, the ocean around Quoin Point is the burial place of numerous ships and hundreds of sailors.

The history of Quoin Point and its shipwrecks is closely connected to that of Elim, the Moravian mission village on the road between Baardskeerdersbos and Bredasdorp. Over the years, residents of Elim have often provided assistance to victims of shipwrecks. Accounts from 1838 already mention that men and women of Elim collected the valuable cargo of the Duke of Northumberland, a troop ship that stranded near Cape Agulhas. Of the people on board the ship only a few survived. When the Cape Agents of the shipping company arrived, they found that the 38 bodies that were washed ashore had already been interred. Food was brought in from Elim to feed the starving survivors.

After people from Elim provided assistance at the wrecking of the Jessie in 1829 at Quoin Point, Queen Victoria granted the right to use the land at Quoin Point to residents. This was a clever move since it assured people would be present to assist shipwreck survivors at this treacherous point were shipwrecking was more the rule than the exception. Today there is still a small light-tower surrounded by some cottages owned by the Schipper- and October-families of Elim.

Originally, Quoin Point was named Ponta de sao Brandoa by Bartolomeu Diaz when he rounded Quoin Point in 1488 on the nameday of the Irish monk St. Brendanus. Later the name changed to Quoin Point, but the locals call it Jessie se Punt (Jessie’s Point).

Below are the stories of seven of the unfortunate vessels that wrecked at Quoin Point.

4.1 Joanna | 1682 (Johanna)

The Joanna was the first English East Indiaman that wrecked on the South African coastline. She was on her way from England to the East when she stranded just east of Quoin Point. Ten people drowned but a group of 104 reached Cape Town. Rumours of a treasure on board spread through town, causing Governor Simon van der Stel to send the Dutch East India Company official Olaf Bergh to investigate. Bergh found a few bodies, which he buried, but also several bottles of brandy and wine and -more interesting for Bergh’s mission- a few hundred Spanish coins. Bergh and his group got onto the wreck of the Joanna and recovered numerous other coins before he returned to Cape Town; mission successfully accomplished.

Exactly 300 years after the Joanna went down, her remains were re-discovered. Over 23’000 coins and a few hundred kilograms of silver were salvaged.

4.2Nicobar | wrecked 1783

A day of fishing off Quoin Point in 1987 brought good fortune for Louis Groenewald and Wilfred Chivell, both born and bred Gansbaaiers. Hanging over the side of their boat, they spotted something on the ocean floor. The dived down to check it out and found a canon and a box with money. Back in Gansbaai they realized that they had found the wreck of the Nicobar, a Danish ship with an enormous cargo of copper-plate money. The Nicobar had not been seen since it went down in 1783 taking all aboard, except 11, with her.

Louis and Wilfred returned to the wreck and took 4 months to salvage what turned out to be the biggest find of copper-plate-money in the world.

Chivell, a conservationist, now owns Dyer Island Cruises, a company organizing whale watching boat tours from Kleinbaai, a small harbour on Danger Point Peninsula.

4.3 Doncaster | wrecked 1836

The Doncaster was on her way from Mauritius to England when she found her premature last resting place at the mouth of the Ratel River, east of Quoin Point. There were no survivors. Local witnesses described how bodies were continually washed ashore as well as limbs and other body-parts. In one account about the incident it was stated that the local field-cornet and his men buried “38 men and boys, 18 women and one coloured woman” (Apartheid clearly, was not restricted to the 20th century).

The bodies of the victims, mostly naked, were too disfigured to be identified and in a letter to the shipping agents in Cape Town it was almost apologetically mentioned that “some two or three had rings on, but their fingers were too swollen to take them off”. “A more melancholy sight is scarcely to be witnessed”, states the same account.

A man with the name of Hans Aventure (A person likely to be of Khoi-descent since he is described as “Hottentot”, as the Dutch called the Khoi-people in imitation of their click language) witnessed the ship perish after she had been “ten or twelve days standing in and off the shore before the disaster happened, sometimes so near to shore that the voices of the crew could be heard”.

The beach was covered with parts of the ship, uniforms of different regiments (some of the people aboard were invalid soldiers from the hospital in Mauritius, sent back to England), music-, prayer- and hymn- books. The most curious find was a box with part of a stomach of a soldier which was meant for the Chief Medical Officer in London.

Though not much of value was found amongst the items washed up, 1000 persons were present at the sale of the remains of the Doncaster. Of the proceeds of a little over R 3000, R 700 was used to pay the field cornet and other men that had patrolled the shores for weeks and another R 700 for labour and miscellaneous expenses.

4.4 Teuton | wrecked 1881

On route from Cape Town to Port Elisabeth, the English steamer Teuton struck a rock off Quoin Point. The rock was known and charted.

Although the Teuton was making water, Captain Manning decided that the Teuton could still reach the port of Simons Town in False Bay. He ordered to man the pumps and -just in case- to ready the life boats. Not much later the propeller came out of the water and the bow went down. Manning now realized the ship could not be saved and ordered to abandon ship. Captain and crew must have made a secure and relaxed impression: the first life boat parted from the ship with a lot of laughter and cheering. The second life boat was however never launched as the Teuton suddenly and immediately went down before anyone on board could say “oops”. Captain Manning never had to answer for his deadly error; he perished with the ship together with 235 other crew and passengers. Only the 36 that made it to the first life-boat survived.

4.5 Avala | wrecked 1938 or 1939 (sources differ on the exact date)

In 1938 the 17 year old Samuel Schippers from Elim was catching fish with Herman October and other Elimmers at Quoin Point when he spotted the Avala drifting to shore. Mr. Samuel Schippers has told his story in 2000 to Liane van der Hoven of the University of Stellenbosch who has wrote it down in her thesis “Elim : a cultural historical study of a Moravian mission station at the southern extreme of Africa”.

While drinking morning-coffee the group of Elimmers watched the Avala go down close to shore. The Elim-men saw in horror how the two lifeboats that moved away from the Avala headed for a reef, invisible to the crews. The Elimmers made a fire and hoisted a flag on some improvised poles to warn them for the dangers ahead and to direct them towards a safe landing place. Once safely on shore, the crew -instead of being grateful for their lives- treated Samuel and his companions with mistrust. They feared that the Elimmers would rob them of their belongings. Communication was an issue. Samuel stated that it was impossible to understand their language. Luckily one of the Elimmers spoke some English and so did one of the crew members. A certain level of trust was established and Samuel and his companions helped the shipwreck survivors to get their belongings to shore. Although the Avala carried coal for delivery in Rangoon, Samuel remembers how 22 barrels of wine floated ashore from the wreck.

4.6 City of Lincoln | 1946

Jan Fourie, famous Gansbaaier and local historian, describes in “Duskant die Duine”* how as a child he witnessed the salvaging of the City of Lincoln:
A fishing boat was used by the custom officials to transport the valuable cargo from the wreck to the settlement of Buffeljag. Apart from a cargo worth 2 million pounds, there were 13 new Dodge and Plymouth cars on board. These cars were purchased for the visit of the English Royal family that was to take place in 1947. Several of these cars had been thrown overboard. Jan remembers how many years later he spotted a car-engine in the water at the same place; the only item remaining of what should have been a proud car serving a royal visit.

Custom officials clearly did not have all under control. Jan Fourie writes how custom officials only became suspicious when domestic staff showed up at the local cinema in expensive fur-coats. A Caterpillar earth-moving machine was salvaged from the City of Lincoln and has ploughed the local fields for many years.

The propellers of two salvage ships, the Swona and the Fynd got tangled with the cables and both vessels shared the fate of the City of Lincoln and end up on the beach. Their remains can still be seen there today.

And the reason for the disaster? Simple: three of the officers on duty were drunk.

*Duskant die Duine is a collection of stories about people and events in and around Danger Point Peninsula written by Jan and his wife, SD Fourie. Duskant die Duine was first published in 2005. ISBN number 0-620-34044-4. Jan and SD also run the private Strandveld Museum on the cliffs of Franskraal. The Strandveld Museum harbors the largest collection of relics of the legendary HMT Birkenhead.

4.7 Esso Wheeling | wrecked 1948

In modern days, marine oil spillage is one of the main threats for seabirds. The Esso Wheeling wrecked in 1948 at the west side of Quoin Point and its oil drifted towards Dyer Island, home to 10’000ths of African penguins and other seabirds. The subsequent oil spillage killed an estimated one third of the colony of African penguins on Dyer Island. In 1952 an oil slick of unknown origin was spilled in South African waters. Bob Rand, leading South African ornithologist at the time, described this incident as follows: “Soiled penguins died on the beaches or lingered on the islands to perish of hunger. Where nesting birds were affected, chicks also died. No matter how small the contamination, the birds refused to take to the water.”

As from 1968, due to the closure of the Suez Canal, oil tankers, not designed to cope with the waters around the Capa de todos Tormentos (The Cape of all storms, as the Cape of Good Hope was firstly named) were forced to take the long route and round Cape Point. In 1968 the Esso Essen, rounded the Cape illegally within the prescribed 16 km safety zone (it was 5 km from shore) and struck an object. After the oil spillage of 4000 tonnes, thousands of sea birds were found oiled and virtually all died. After the Esso Essen incident, the Southern African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB in short) was established. Over the years suitable facilities have been developed to deal with oiled seabirds, especially penguins. After the Esso Essen, there were 5 other oil spills that affected more than 1000 penguins. The worst incident on the South African coast was the sinking of the iron ore carrier Apolla Sea near Dassen Island, which resulted in the oiling of more than 10’000 penguins. The last oil spill that affected more than 1000 birds was off Danger Point in 1995. Still, each year, about a 1000 oiled penguins are brought to SANCCOB due to small oil spillages.

Source : Les Underhill / Avian demography unit / University of Cape Town.