The Wreck of The São José Paquete Africa
The Wreck of The São José Paquete Africa
The São José Paquete de Africa left Lisbon on 27 April 1794, bound for Mozambique with iron ballast bars to be exchanged for enslaved Africans. In December of that year, it departed Mozambique for Brazil, destined for the sugar plantations, with 512 enslaved people on board. The ship intended to stop at the Cape for supplies, but on 27 December 1794, it struck a submerged rock about 100 metres off Clifton Beach during a storm. The vessel quickly began to sink.
While the captain and crew survived, more than 200 enslaved people drowned. Records later revealed that 212 survivors were taken from the wreck and sold to buyers in Cape Town, while the rest were abandoned to the sea.
The wreck was only discovered in the 1980s, and its full history was pieced together over the following decades through archival research, including records of the Dutch East India Company and the Portuguese captain’s account. Archaeological work recovered iron ballast bars, fragments of the hull, and shackles preserved in the sand.
Artefacts from the São José are displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, while conservation efforts continue in Cape Town. Fragile items such as shackles and corroded metal have been stabilised using electrochemical and electrolytic methods.
In 2015, soil from Mozambique was laid over the wreck in memory of those who died or were enslaved. The site has since been declared a national monument, with a commemorative plaque planned for Clifton Second Beach.
