Page 17 - Bulletin 9 2005

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amongst the Cape inhabitants when they returned later. Mariners who were wrecked at or
near the Cape early on, had been reluctant to interact with local people beyond their

immediate needs. Shipwreck survivors had attempted to remain as self-sufficient as
possible. The Haerlem survivors realised that that life would be easier with additional local

knowledge and access to resources and made efforts to ensure that this access would be

granted them. Had the British or Portuguese created the refreshment station, it is likely that
history would have taken a very different course.

The Cape’s diverse shipwreck heritage

In the more than 500 years that vessels have been using Simon’s Bay and Table Bay, at

least 484 ships are known to have been lost on the shores of the Cape Peninsula. Table Bay
alone holds about 450 wrecks with a further 252 wrecks located along the shores of False

Bay and the Peninsula. They are among the more than 2700 wrecks representing 38
nationalities, which litter the South African coastline.

Large-scale archaeological excavations have taken place on wreck sites such as the

Oosterland and Waddinxveen, both wrecked on the same night in 1697 in Table Bay. Under
the archaeological supervision of Dr. Bruno Werz, sport divers have been able to carefully

excavate and document parts of these wreck sites. Wrecks such as the Grosvenor are being

excavated currently. Several thousand artefacts have been recovered to date and are being
conserved and analysed. But not all investigations have been aimed at the recovery of

artefacts. Several shipwreck examples from False Bay and the Cape Peninsula have been
examined from a largely non-intrusive, non-destructive angle. Simon’s Bay has yielded two

prime examples. These date from the period when England and the Netherlands were vying
for control of the Cape. In 1805, the English East Indiaman Brunswick was captured by the

French and delivered to the Dutch at Simon’s Town. (Fig. 1.6). Stormy weather intervened,

however, and the ship was blown off her anchor and wrecked. Because the vessel was
relatively unremarkable – her cargo of sandalwood did not appear to warrant full-scale