Here are our Top 5 stormy tales from history:

12 May 2013 Eihatsu Maru, Clifton Beach:

Even last year, a Japanese long-line tuna fishing vessel, the Eihatsu Maru, ran aground in thick fog on Clifton Beach. Several attempts to tow the vessel off the beach failed, so the 90 tons of fuel oil on board were pumped off. It wasn’t until 18 May that she was successfully re-floated and towed into Cape Town harbour.

25 May 1900 SS Kakapo, Noordhoek Beach:

When you see the skeleton of the SS Kakapo high and dry on Noordhoek Beach, you have to wonder how it got there. There’s a wonderful account on Find Trip Info website of how the recently qualified captain of this steam ship, on its maiden voyage to New Zealand, mistook Noordhoek Peak for Cape Point and steered hard to port and ploughed full steam ahead onto the beach. The Captain felt so bad that he refused to get off until he was finally taken to a mental institution. 

Great Gale of May 1865:

The weather had been blisteringly hot in May 1865, with scorching berg winds blowing from the interior. When this wind shifted north-west – the direction from which winter storms arrive – it was not considered unusual. After all it was autumn and nothing dramatic was expected. The change came fast and without warning and on 17^th May the Great Gale of 1865 commenced.  It was an ominous day and by 2pm, more than ten vessels had crashed into each other or run ashore in Table Bay. As the day progressed, shipwrecks increased and with them came a savage body count. In the light of the next day, Cape Town residents turned out to witness the havoc wreaked by this tempest. To this day, the boiler and cylinder of the Athens wreck, right in front of Mouille Point lighthouse are stuck firmly between the rocks.

30 May 1815, Arniston:

The tragic story of the British East Indiaman, wrecked off Arniston on 30 May 1815, tells how 372 lives were lost, with only 6 survivors. Wikipedia tells how she had been requisitioned as a troopship to carry wounded soldiers back to England from a war in Ceylon. A heavy storm, navigational difficulties and the Captain’s incorrect assumption that Cape Agulhas was Cape Point, created the terrible circumstances that caused this shipwreck.

4May 1692 Lions eats Governor’s horse:

There had been a terrible storm in early May 1692 and several ships had floundered with their valuable cargo. On the 4^th May, second Governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel, decided to sleep in a tent on the beach as a show of force to deter thieves. Sometime after midnight, a pair of lions came down to the beach and found a tethered horse – it was the Governor’s. They killed it and settled down to eat it right there, just twenty paces from the tent. The next night the Governor slept in the Castle!