Historically, the coastline from around Laingville to Duykereiland is referred to as “The Agterbaai”. This stretch of coast is geographically characterized by many quaint bays, some with beautiful north-facing beaches and which are separated by rocky peninsulas and dangerous submerged reefs extending well into the ocean. These bays have been named and renamed several times by the settlers during the past 500 years with names like Britannia Bay, Mother of Pearl Bay (Perlemoenbaai), Kaloeniebaaai and many more.
This rugged coastline has seen the demise of many a ship caused by factors ranging from adverse weather conditions to drunk captains. Many of these wrecks and their stories are well known - for example, the Britannia (1826) and the Sea Trader (1976) - and have been the subject of numerous salvage operations during the past hundred years. Apart from the “Sea Trader”, the wrecks are all submerged and their exact positions remain a mystery to the public due to jealously-guarded secrets kept by salvage divers, recreational scuba divers and spear fisherman.
For the last six years, we have made it our mission to relocate these wrecks and to discover hitherto unknown wrecks using geophysical technology. This has turned out to be great fun especially when you dive to confirm a wreck. In the process, seven wrecks have been relocated and at least four new ones have been found. What is especially great is that some of these wrecks lie in shallow and safe waters and can be explored by novice free divers and scuba divers. The hunt for unknown wrecks entails quite a bit of research into folklore and interesting discussions of topics that border on treasure hunting. For example, the recent discovery of a 1792 map of St. Helena Bay refers to an American ship that stranded “two and a half years before” in “Mother of Pearl” bay. Can we find it? Future blogs and newsletters will probably contain short articles discussing some of these wrecks and sharing their stories.