The Wreck of The Johanna
The Wreck of The Johanna
The Joanna was the first English East Indiaman that was wrecked on the coastline of South Africa.
She was wrecked off Quoin Point in 1682 when she was on a journey from England to the East Ten people were drowned but a group of 104 managed to reach Cape Town.
Foul weather and grey skies had prevented the captain and crew from making navigational observations for eight days and they had no accurate idea of where they were.
On the 28th of May there were grey skies, a strong north-westerly wind and heavy seas, but the next day the sea calmed. The crew hoped that they would see land in the daylight. The captain however believed that the ship was well south of any land so he instructed the helmsman to steer an easterly course and to maintain watch. Unfortunately because of this miscalculation, she struck the bottom hard breaking her tiller, and the wind drove her onto the rocks.
There were rumours of treasure on board and Governor Simon van der Stel sent the Dutch East India Company official Olaf Bergh to investigate.
Bergh found a few bodies, which he and his group buried. However, he also found several bottles of brandy and wine which he found more interesting. Bergh and his group later found a few hundred Spanish coins. When they got to the wreck of the Joanna they recovered many more coins before they returned to Cape Town;
The Wreck of The Johanna
300 years after The Joanna went down, her remains were re-discovered. Over 23000 coins a few hundred kilograms of silver and 44 iron canons were salvaged. other
