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Bellows Rock – SS Lusitania 18 April 1911

The Bellows Rock is so named because of the formation of a reef which causes a rush of waves

between the rocks, and a great body of water is dashed into the air to a height of 60 feet in
anything like rough weather. The roar of the bellows can be heard on some nights for a

considerable distance.

It was on this rock that the highest number of survivors in the history of shipwrecks in South

Africa were rescued (some 790 persons) when the ship Lusitania was wrecked at midnight on 18
April 1911. (The Oceanos which sank on 4 August 1991 had 561 passengers and crew.)

The Lusitania was a Portuguese twin-screw steamer of 5,557 tons, fine-looking and well-found,

built in 1906 by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co., and owned by E. N. N. (Empreza Nacional de
Navegacao), Lisbon. (Figs. 4.4 & 4.5).

She was under the command of Captain Favia and bound from Lourenco Marques via Cape
Town and other west African Portuguese ports for Lisbon. She had 793 persons on board, made

up of 25 passengers in first class, 57 in second class, 121 in third class, and 475 African

indentured labourers for the Portuguese west African island of Sao Tome. The crew numbered
115. On 18 April 1911 the captain sighted the Cape Point light some time before the disaster. He

then set a course which would give the point a wide berth but the light became obscured in the
mist which came off the land and, accompanied by light rain, the light was not sighted again until

23h40. The captain then observed that a very strong current was running. This carried the
Lusitania much closer to land than he had intended. He was now able to see the coast distinctly.

He as once put the helm over to stand out from the land, but ten minutes later, at 23h50, the

Lusitania struck Bellows Rock. There was a short period of panic aboard but this soon calmed.
The first lifeboat to be lowered was from the starboard side, and here the rocks were numerous.

The craft was stoved in and the third officer drowned as his grip slipped from the rope he was
holding.