…tomorrow.
A good drive home, but it’s been a long day, and tomorrow – including a visit to the Home Affairs Department – doesn’t look hugely pretty.
Gym seemed like – and was – a good idea this afternoon, but there is something of a paucity of energy now, and I think an early night seems like – and will be – a good idea.
We’ve seen a few of these rubber bales along the coast here over the last 10 years, but never really knew what they were or where they came from. And then I did some research.
I walked past this one again today…
…and I was reminded that I was going to do a blog post about it at some point.
Seems like now might be that point.
These are likely to be part of the cargo of the SS Helmspey, which was sunk by a German U-boat off Cape St Francis in February 1943. Apparently, the rubber bales were part of its cargo being taken from Asia (specifically Ceylon – now Sri Lanka) back to Great Britain to assist in the war effort.
The Agulhas current would have done a lot of the hard work of moving the bales from the site of the attack down towards Agulhas, and the huge storm of September last year would have shifted a lot more stuff ashore. The one above is now a good 15m up from the high tide mark after the storm surge from that storm.
It’s amazing how you can find some beautifully kept artefacts along our shores….
We also found some more of these incredibly old rubber bales in large clumps! These were in the cargo hold of the “Helmsley”, a British freighter, which was steaming from Colombo to the UK. It was torpedoed by the German Submarine U-516 on the 11th February 1943 off the coast of Cape St Francis. The wreck was possibly disturbed in the violent storms that we had on the weekend of the 23rd September 2023.
Apparently onboard there was:
– 2772 tons of tea,
– 2000 tons of manganese ore
– 1457 tons of rubber, and
– 464 tons of general cargo
And that does fit with this description. And also with this eyewitness account of a sailor onboard the vessel when it was hit:
On leaving East London South Africa, after taking on oil bunkers she was found too slow for coastal convoys and was independently routed to Cape town for inclusion in a slower U.K. bound convoy.
At the time of the sinking I was asleep in my cabin on the starboard side just abaft of the no. 2 cargo hold when the first torpedo struck on the port side of that hold. It is hard to believe now but I slept through that explosion and it was necessary for an able seaman running to his boat station to shake me awake through an open porthole, youth is a marvelous thing!
And – apparently – it could all have been so different:
In retrospect it is my considered opinion that this vessel should not have been lost. Being as we were so close to the coast I feel sure that if we had kept way on the ship and turned to starboard we would have avoided the second torpedo and run aground. Of course it’s so easy to surmise these things afterwards but a totally different situation at the time.
Either way, I know of three of these bales around Suiderstrand, and it’s quite cool to be able to put the pieces of a jigsaw together and link it in to some real, living history.
I did think about using my time this afternoon to write a long blog post, the like of which hasn’t been seen on here since last week.
But maybe it was the early morning wake up call by the f*****g builders (yes, different builders to the ones that have been plaguing us in Cape Town for almost 6 months, and yes, today is a Sunday).
Maybe it’s the sea air (which is moving past the cottage at very, very high speed) or maybe it’s this morning’s beach walk in that gale force wind, but right now, I’m feeling that:
I realise that this decision won’t necessarily make some readers very happy, but please rest in the knowledge that I think it will make me very happy.
Assuming that the angle grinding stops soon.
A nice lazy start, some good coffee, an altogether terrible trip down to Agulhas, but then on the plus side, Agulhas at the end of it.
A Sheffield United win, a Sheffield wendy defeat, a decent 5km run along the beach at sunset, and now a braai and a cold Jack Black lager.
Cheers, everyone.
English football at it again, I suppose?
Not like those nice Serbians. Or the lovely Croatians. The darling Greeks.
And I won’t hear a word said against those absolute sweeties from Italy.
But yeah. Always an English problem.
And always a football problem. You never see any trouble at a rugby match.
Well, unless it’s an SA schools match. Or an SA provincial rugby match. Etc etc.
But yeah. Only the English football. Or the South African rugby. Or the Irish ploughing.
Wait… what?
Not more ploughing news?
Yep:
It’s another brilliant article from the Irish local press.
The Electric Picnic turns out to be an annual music festival in County Laois in Ireland. It’s actually pretty big. And the Ploughing? Well, that’s the Irish National Ploughing Championships as mentioned (extensively) in this post here.
“More assaults and trouble come from the Ploughing match than the Electric Picnic,” Judge Cody said as he inspected an occasional licence application by The Wrens Nest.
Judge Cody asked Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby if he was right to suggest there was more assaults and trouble from the National Ploughing Championships.
“The statistics would back that up,” agreed Sgt Kirby.
That exchange is so much better when you do it with Irish accents.
I love the fact that Ploughing is the third most important subsection of the local news site.
Just ahead of “National News” there.
And it really is great stuff. Everything you’d expect from a local Irish news site.
The big news, including the National Brown Bread Baking competition results:
The photos of all the lovely girls*, and the suspense! over next year’s venue.
As for the prospect of trouble at the National Ploughing Championships, Judge Cody decided that the best way forward was to grant all of the alcohol licences which for which applications had been made.
Hey, it is Ireland, after all.
* iykyk
