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.
