The waters around Cape Town, South Africa, are littered with the wreckage of ships of all types, and many of those wrecks are concentrated in locations very near each other. While it can take a stout heart and a thick skin to enjoy these cold water dives, along with a good drysuit or 5-7mm wetsuit, they are certainly worth investigating! The Maori and Oakburn, as well as the remains of the crane BOSS 400, are just a few hundred meters from each other, and make for some fascinating dives. While some people are happy just to make the descent, take a peek, and return to the surface, others require several dives to take in all the sights that lie below this chilly and sometimes frighteningly powerful water.
The Maori
On August 5th, 1909, the steam freighter Maori ran aground on the rocks around Duiker Point. Laid down in 1893 and owned by the Shaw Savill Company, she was laden with some very exciting cargo: Railroad tracks, massive pipes, crockery, explosives, and rolls of linoleum, along with bottles of wine and champagne. Six crew members perished after the wreck, as they tried to make their way to shore in a wooden lifeboat, which capsized in the freezing cold, wintry waters, and the crewmen were lost to the sea.
Today, Maori lies in what can be a pleasant and easily accessible place, just twenty meters deep, about seventy-five meters from the shore. She is fairly broken up, however, it is possible to see the wreck from the surface on a good diving day when the water is clear. The ship’s engine block is easily accessible, and seals often emerge through the kelp forest, to take a peek at divers and investigate the wreck a little, themselves.
Unfortunately much of the fascinating cargo she carried has been picked through and looted, although it is sometimes possible to spot some pretty china lying on the ocean floor, or even get a look at an old bottle of wine. During the 1970’s, divers hoped that the wine and champagne that had survived the wreck might still be drinkable; however, when they would bring the bottles to the surface, they would explode most of the time, and those bottles that survived the trip to the top did not contain anything that could be considered to be a drinkable beverage!
Watch for cuttlefish and nudibranchs, as well as crabs and rock lobsters. There is not much else in the way of life on board, although you may see a passing school of hottentot!
Oakburn and BOSS 400
You’ll see the wreck of the Boss 400 before you even arrive at the dive site, since the tower rises up out of the water and is visible for miles on a clear day. The Oakburn is positioned just beneath Boss’s stern, to the southwest edge of the wreck. Both wrecks are accessible at depths between twenty and twenty-five meters, and can only be dived during clear, calm weather, since the surge here can be deadly.
The Oakburn sank in May 1906, while enroute to Sydney from New York. She was laden with important supplies for Australia’s settlers: sewing machines, railway equipment, oil, paper, and glass. She even had precious musical instruments onboard. On the 21st of May, the ship ran aground in heavy fog and two of the crewmen lost their lives while attempting to get to shore.
The Boss was being towed to a work site by a Russian tug in 1994, when it’s tow lines broke, and it ran aground almost exactly on top of the Oakburn. Once the largest floating crane in South Africa, Oakburn’s helicopter pad has parted ways with the structure, which is beginning to hold more visual interest.
The rocky reef that was the demise of both ships is made up of large boulders and outcroppings, where waves crash during heavy weather. Those same waves have done a good job of breaking up the Oakburn to the point where she is basically a scattered, albeit intriguing, field of debris. Although there are some chunky, penetrable pieces of this massive ship available for exploration, this should only be attempted by seasoned wreck divers.
The Boss 400, on the other hand, has a big, cavernlike space located beneath the stern. This area is mostly clear of snags and is covered in heavy timbers, which are attractive to fish and soft coral alike. There are other, smaller areas that can be explored within the wreck of the Boss, mostly lying on the bottom and broken off from the main wreck section.
Diving Conditions and Marine Life
This set of wrecks is only accessible by boat, since there are no roads in the area where they lie. The ride out can be choppy and uncomfortable, and many expeditions that head out to explore these wrecks return with full tanks, or find an alternate site to dive for the day, simply because conditions can be unpredictable and diving when there is more than the slightest current can be treacherous. On arrival, you can get some idea about what the surge below water is like simply by listening to see whether the crane tower on board the Boss 400 is creaking loudly or not. Odds are good that a loud fast creak announces dangerous conditions below the surface, and you will need to go somewhere else.
This being said, on a good day, these dives are both fun and exciting. In the absence of algae bloom, visibility can be twenty meters or better, and the creatures that take shelter in unseen places tend to emerge in calmer conditions. Colorful anemones and sponges, as well as soft coral, take shelter inside crevices, and cheerful red, white, and orange nippled sea fans spread their short, stout fingers as though welcoming you to the wreck sites.
Watch for visiting pelagics in the area, as well as spotted gas flame nudibranchs, brilliant blue hagfish, and striped klipfish, which conceal themselves among the coral and hide in various nooks and crannies. Watch for small octopus and shrimp, and enjoy this interesting, daringly different set of shipwrecks.