05/08/2026
Today, August 5:
“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”
1909: Maori, this British steam-powered refrigerated cargo ship was wrecked in the eponymous Maori Bay, south of Llandudno in the Western Cape. It left Table Bay at midnight on the 4th and ran into a thick fog off Sea Point. In less than an hour it had run onto a rock at full steam. It started sinking immediately and the crew took to the lifeboats. In the confusion fifteen crewmen were left behind. Their presence was discovered later in the day by local fishermen who managed to get a line across to the wreck. Two men managed to get ashore on this line, but two others drowned in the attempt. The remaining crew had to wait another twenty-four hours before a rocket apparatus was set up on the rocks adjacent to the wreck, and they could be hauled to safety. A number of photos were taken of the wreck and the rescue efforts, a haunting image shows a lone sailor standing on the fore-mast awaiting rescue, it is unclear if he survived. Two of the victims of the tragedy were buried in a small graveyard near Slangkop lighthouse in Kommetjie, they joined a victim of the Clan Monroe shipwreck which happened a few years earlier in 1905.
Today, the Maori lies perpendicular to the coast with its stern surrounded by granite boulders, and its bow facing out to sea, about 75 metres offshore. Water depth on the wreck ranges from 7 metres on its stern, to 22 metres on its bow.
As the Maori lies in the relative shelter of Maori Bay, it remained well preserved. The famous ocean explorer Jaques Cousteau dived on the wreck in the 1960s and declared that it was the best preserved wreck of its type that he had seen. This was largely due to it being intact with the cargo lying neatly stacked in the hull which was accessible to swim through.
Unfortunately, the well-preserved nature of its hull lead to increasingly destructive attempts to recover some of the cargo. In the 1970s, dynamite was used on the bow section of the wreck, and while it opened up the hull, it also damaged a lot of the cargo and the super structure of the vessel. The remnants of the cases of ceramics, wine, and champagne it was carrying were visible for years after. However much of its cargo has now been depleted by souvenir hunters who have slowly stripped the Maori of its artefacts. There is now a large debris field of broken glass and ceramics surrounding the bow and the wreck is collapsing onto itself in some areas. Parts of its hull that were once accessible to divers have now mostly collapsed and it is not advised to enter the wreck.
However, the Maori still makes for a really interesting dive (it’s a favourite of the MUCH team), its boilers, engine heat exchanger, propeller shaft, and various winches mounted on its upper deck are identifiable. Piles of railway lines lie near the stern of the wreck and large steel pipes rest on the deck near the bow. If you look carefully there are rolls of linoleum, slightly encrusted with sea life, showing a popular Victorian geometric pattern. Amongst the wreckage are many pieces of broken ceramics, perhaps remains of the toys, crockery and bed pans that were once commonplace on the wreck.
While diving on the wreck is encouraged, it is important to note that it is protected by the National Heritage Resources Act (No. 25 of 1999), and visitors are asked not to damage or remove items from the wreck and to leave it as you found it so that others can enjoy visiting this interesting part of our maritime history.
