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MaSS

stepping stones of maritime history

Description

The Saksenburg was a three-masted, square-rigged sailing vessel that had left Texel on 2 November 1727. The vessel stopped at the Cape between 21 April and 26 May 1728, and arrived in Batavia on 12 August that year. There was a gap of two years in her record before the vessel was wrecked while it was homeward bound near Agulhas in 1730.

In the night of 8 to 9 January 1730, the Saksenburg wrecked just before Cape Town on a reef at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa. Only 7 of the crew members survived the ordeal when they were eventually picked up by other vessels.

MasterJan de Haan
Length140 feet (42.7 m)
Tonnage610 ton (305 last)

Status

The geographic co-ordinates for what may be the site were provided by Charlie Shapiro on 22 May 2001 from GPS readings taken during a magnetometer survey.

References

Down on 9 December

New in MaSS

Wrecks of Flevoland

Burgzand Noord

13 Provinces