1830: Lady Holland, this wooden vessel of 455 tons and built in 1811 and commanded by Captain J. Snell struck a reef at 22h00 north-east of Dassen Island off the west coast in the Western Cape and wrecked. Its passengers and crew made it onto Dassen Island using the boats before being rescued. Lady Holland was on a voyage from London to Calcutta. Part of her cargo was saved and no lives were lost.
1850: Childe Harold, this British full rigged wooden sailing vessel wrecked on the south-eastern point of Dassen Island off the west coast in the Western Cape just after midnight. The captain was the only casualty, who drowned trying to swim a line to shore. Childe Harold was built in 1825 at Ipswich and commanded by Captain J. Byres. She was on a voyage from Bombay to London via Table Bay with a cargo of 1 336 pieces of ivory, coffee, coir, yam, gum arabic, gum anime, deer horns, pearl shells, shawls and cardomoms.
1981: Otto Siedle, this tug was scuttled by the SA Navy about 100km north west of Cape Town in the Western Cape in about 2.5km deep water. The tug was decommissioned, stripped of all valuable material, and then donated to the SA Navy who used it for torpedo target practice for the SAS Maria van Riebeeck. The tug had served for 43 years in various roles, most commonly on the modern-day Namibian coastline where it assisted many stricken vessels. There is also a story that tells of the tug’s master playing a practical joke on the Italian liner Europa’s passengers by rigging a skeleton to make it appear as though the tug was being steered by the skeleton as it pulled up alongside the Europa in Walvis Bay in Namibia. Built by Lobnitz in 1938 for the South African Railways and Harbours she worked at mostly Cape Town and also Durban and East London till 1981.
