1686: Bonaventura, this 20 ton British wooden sailing ketch wrecked in St Lucia Bay in St Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal. After mistaking which bay they were in as well as the timing of the tides, the ketch ran aground. The crew abandoned it until high tide would refloat it, and it did, but it happened too quickly, and it floated up the river where it wrecked. Of the ten that were on board, one drowned. They eventually made it to modern day Durban, which was not a formal settlement yet. Here they met survivors from the wrecks of the Good Hope and Stavinesse with whom they built a vessel by the name of Centaurus and they set sail for Cape Town on the 17th of February 1687. They arrived at Cape Town on the 1st of March. It is reported that two of the survivors of the Bonaventura stayed behind as they wanted to live amongst the friendly locals. Bonaventura was commanded by Captain John Gilford.
1805: Le Napoleon, this wooden sailing privateer was driven ashore and wrecked at Olifantsbos on the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape whilst being pursued by the Royal Navy frigate, HMS Narcissus. It has been reported that some of the remains of the vessel can be observed near the carpark at the start of the Thomas T Tucker shipwreck trail. The French subjects from this wreck are mentioned in the Articles of Capitulation by which the Batavian Republic handed control of the Cape to Britain.
