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MaSS

stepping stones of maritime history

History

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.

Description

SkipperJan de Haan
Length129.9 feet (39.6 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

  • DAS 2711.2.
  • Generale missiven Deel 9.
  • Lesa la Grange, Martijn Manders, Briege Williams, John Gribble and Leon Derksen (2024).
    Dutch Shipwrecks in South African Waters: A Brief History of Sites, Stores and Archives [Unpublished].

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