Page 118 - Bulletin 15 2011

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SHIPWRECKS OF THE FAR SOUTH

Talk presented to the AGM of the Kalk Bay Historical Association 30 March 2010

Mike Walker

There have been many shipwrecks along the South Peninsula coastline but the focus of this talk

will be the shipwrecks that have occurred along the western Atlantic seaboard and their

consequences.

Less than a kilometre off the west coast of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, at
Olifantsbos, there lies a hazardous rock outcrop known as Albatross Rock. It has a unique shape

as it rises from a depth of 7 – 13 fathoms to a pinnacle about one fathom below sea surface. At
high tide there is no breaking water which makes it extremely difficult for a lookout to detect.

Among its victims were the SS Albatross – the vessel that gave its name to the infamous rock.

(Fig. 4.1).

SS Albatross 10 April 1873

The SS Albatross was a screw steamer of 74 tons that had arrived in Table Bay c. 1859 as the

first steam tug to be employed at the Cape. She towed sailing ships and also served as the Robben
Island packet (mail collection and delivery).

On 10 April 1873 she left Simon’s Bay bound for Table Bay under the command of Captain

Johnson with a crew of seven and a cargo of 120 bales of cotton from a ship that had foundered.

She rounded Cape Point at 18h45 and struck the submerged rock at a speed of 9 knots. A
southwest wind was blowing and she was moving under sail in heavy seas. Water immediately

flooded the engine-room and Captain Johnson put the helm hard to port in an effort to beach her.
He and the crew then abandoned ship and boarded a dinghy. Within minutes the ship had

capsized and in less than 12 minutes she had disappeared beneath the waves.