Page 132 - Bulletin 15 2011

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Efforts were made to refloat her with the help of the Table Bay Harbour tug Ludwig Wiener

which did in fact pull the stricken ship off the rocks and was towing her back to Simon’s Town
for repairs, but because of the danger of her foundering in the docks approach-channel permission

was refused to let her enter until further repairs had been carried out. This forced the ship’s
captain to run her ashore on Mackeral Beach to prevent her from sinking. She was then linked to

the beach by cableway and lay about fifty metres from the shore.

It was at first thought that it would be possible to get the vessel off the sand and for this purpose

two anchors were used. Her hull was holed near the engine-room and she was making water. The
crew pumped in more water in order to keep the ship steady. The water acted as extra ballast and

helped keep the ship in position in spite of the rough weather.

The coal and much of her equipment had already been salvaged, and her deckhouse was later
removed when the decision was finally made to abandon her. The deckhouse was taken to the

Glencairn Hotel and for many years served as a summerhouse.

The directors of the Clan Line were not impressed by her grounding and after an Inquiry the

master was dismissed.

SS Kakapo 25 May 1900

The Kakapo was a British steamer of 1093 tons, built in 1898 by Grangemouth Dockyard Co.,

Grangemouth, and commanded by Captain Nicolayson with a crew of twenty. She was on her
maiden voyage from the Tyne to New Zealand for the Union Shipping Co. of Wellington. She

had left Cape Town Harbour after re-coaling at 16h30. Her next port of call was to be Freemantle

in West Australia. (Figs. 4.7 – 4.10).

Her remains lie on the Kommetjie – Noordhoek beach where she ran ashore on Friday 25 May
1900 at approximately 19h00 during a north-west gale and heavy rain. The officer-of-the-watch

mistook Chapman’s Peak for Cape Point (presumably the lighthouse was obliterated by fog and
bad weather, as it frequently was) and once past Chapman’s Peak he ordered ‘hard-to-port, full