Maqoma's Last War: The Sinking of the Birkenhead

Nic Dekker, a young Hermanus frogman, dived to a rock near Danger Point last month and found what he believes to be the wreck of the Birkenhead, the troop ship that sank in 1852. He saw an anchor, and brought up a piece of copper rail and a steel platefrom the wreck, which looked like a ‘coral-encrusted scrapyard’.He hopes to dive again soon to search for gold and coinage rumoured to be worth more than UKP 1,000,000 which the ship was supposed to be carrying.So opens a new chapter in the story of a wreck which for more than 100 years has caught the world’s imagination – The Cape Argus – Saturday, August 2, 1958.