3-017-150 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Effects of the late storm in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 1865. '...the mail-steamer Athens, belonging to the Union Steam Navigation Company...was destroyed by the great storm in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 17th of May. We now present a view of the scene of wide-spread havoc which was displayed on the beach immediately after the storm had ceased. There were no less than fifteen seagoing vessels, besides many smaller craft, thrown upon shore, and some were broken to pieces, while others were partially or wholly dismantled. At the same hour, when the steamer Athens was driven, upon the rocks at Green Point, the barque City of Peterborough was torn from her moorings, at the other end of the bay, and struck on the reef opposite the military hospital. The cries of the crew for help could be distinctly heard, but it was found impossible to render assistance. Attempts to communicate with the vessel by means of Manby's apparatus were made, but without success; and before midnight she went to pieces, all hands perishing, to the number of eighteen. Mr. Joseph Wright, of Lincoln, the captain, had his wife and child on board'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.