3-017-139 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wreck of the mail-steamer Athens in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 1865. A '...tremendous storm...on the 17th of May...[wrecked a ship] belonging to the Union Steam Navigation Company...[She] was carried broadside upon the rocks, at Green Point, between the lighthouses...It was seven o'clock in the evening when she was driven upon the rocks, where she very rapidly broke up. The calls for help of those on board could be distinctly heard upon the shore, amid the roar of the breakers...for two hours a continued wail of anguish and appeals for help came from the steamer, which could occasionally be seen lying on the rocks, broken-backed, but still above water...About ten o'clock the cries ceased, and thick darkness gathered over the scene...Next morning two bodies were recovered, both very much bruised from pounding against the rocks, and both were stripped, with the exception of under-drawers, showing that, before taking their final plunge, the unhappy men had calmly prepared themselves for a last struggle for life...the master, Captain D. Smith, Dr. J. Heath Curtis, the medical officer...engineers, and twenty-five other persons, made up the list of the officers and crew; and there is no doubt that they all perished'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.