The wreck of the SS Lyngenfjord

A while back, Dawn and I were chatting about our mothers and the journey that the remaining four siblings (Selma, Mary, Rosa and Martin) made to South Africa in early 1935. Apart from knowing the name of the ship that they travelled on (more about that to follow later), Dawn mentioned how her late mom had mentioned wreck of a Norwegian ship near Port Elizabeth and the ensuing events in which her late parents played a part.

Dawn writes: “I mentioned a vague (very) memory of my Mom, Selma telling me a story of how one night her brothers Martin and Jacob and David called at her home (she was married to my Dad Max) to tell her a ship had gone aground and the Norwegian crew had been brought to the Seaman’s Institute in Port Elizabeth. The boys often visited the institute – it was a contact with Norway, and a place where they could converse in Norwegian. The rescued sailors needed to be clothed, as they had lost all. They could not speak English. My Mom could translate. My Dad had a small outfitting shop, and struggling to make ends meet. That night the entire stock was sold to the seamen and my parents had a respite for a while from a precarious financial situation.”

So, was it possible to locate the ship that had been wrecked? Indeed it was. The only shipwreck near Port Elizabeth in the 1930s that involved a Norwegian vessel occurred on 14th January 1938.

The records of the event show the following. It was a stormy day and the Norwegian freighter SS Lyngenfjord (built 1913) ran aground at Huisklip, at the mouth of the Tsitsikamma River near Cape St. Francis. No lives were lost, but the raging seas and the rocky coast soon battered the 5.627 ton steam freighter to pieces. She had been en-route from France to Madagascar and was carrying a cargo of cement, timber and liquor.

The wreck of the SS Lyngenfjord off Cape St. Francis

Most of the cargo was salvaged, except the liquor. The locals looted the wreck and hid the liquor on the beach. Unfortunately, for them, the coast guard patrolled the area during the following two years. Speculation has it that some of the liquor remains hidden in the area.

Not long after the ship sank, a “captain’s chair” washed out on the beach near Oyster Bay. The chair, made of Burmese Teak, has “SS Lyngenfjord” engraved on the backrest, with the metal number 22 underneath. On the front of the backrest is the emblem of the Grace Line – the original owners of the freighter. Today the chair has found a home in the entrance of a holiday hotel in Cape St. Francis; the Lyngenfjord Hotel.

The "captain's chair"

In the 1980 Malcolm Turner who was employed as a diver by African Offshore Services at that time salvaged the site . Turner dicovered two four-bladed manganese bronze propellers. The divers broke the two propellers into pieces and over the course of a month, moved the loose blades and other parts (including various bronze pumps, valves and copper pipes) into a stockpile in deeper water with the intent to return for them at a later date with a vessel to lift and salvage. Due to the heavy surf conditions experienced along this stretch of coastline, the materials were not recovered and the site was abandoned.

So, in its small way the wreck of a Norwegian vessel on the South African coast over 80 years ago has a very real connection to two groups of Norwegians; the rescued crew and the Lurie family, both of whom were so very far from home.

References:

https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?171295

https://sahris.sahra.org.za/cases/ss-lyngenfjord-salvage-operations-activities

https://www.facebook.com/766298676713607/posts/the-ss-lyngenfjord-1913-1938it-was-a-stormy-day-january-14th-1938-when-the-norwe/819205651422909/