1.) ATHENS – Mouille Point – Great Gale of 1865 The boiler and cylinder of this mail steamship, remain firmly wedged between the rocks, to remind us of the lives lost. 2.) KAKAPO – Noordhoek Beach – 1900 The remains of the rudder, boiler and frame of the Kakapo, lie like a skeleton in deep [...]
Take a closer look at the hand-painted murals in the Cape Grace reception and Signal Restaurant and you will find they depict scenes of 17th century Table Bay, with ships arriving at the newly constructed refreshment station at the Cape. In 1657, it took the trading ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), three [...]
The only shipwreck to occur along the Cape Peninsula, that could be considered slightly humorous, is that of the Kakapo steamship in 1900. It was of course a dark and stormy night, and a strong north-westerly wind was whipping the waves into a fury and sending spray over the decks. Driving rain dashed into the [...]
1. Silver in the Hills In the 1600s, anything glinting was assumed to contain precious metals and hardly had the settlers arrived in the Cape, before they started digging for silver. They did their best to coax silver out of the glinting ore but all they got was burned rock and black smoke. Jan van [...]