Heritage Cases

We have been surveying this site for 3 years and would like to re new our permit in order to continue our research and further the discoveries on this heritage site. As this dive site is not an easy site and conditions are very limited for dives, we would like to extend our permit to every 3 years instead of yearly. Progress is slow due to the conditions as well as funding as we are doing this in our off days. We have found evidence of an historic shipwreck in Walkerbay Hermanus, Western Cape. We would like to undertake a magnetometer survey, to define the boundaries of the site and there after map the site. We have no intention of salvaging or removing any artefacts from the site. We wish to monitor and protect the site in order to promote it as a heritage dive site, with both local and international tourists. We would like to do a magnetometer survey in a 400m radius from the known wreck site in order to ascertain the extent of the wreck dispersal, the centre point of the wreck site is at 34 25 18S - 19 14 47E. We have found four anchors which of three of the four appear to be admiralty anchors and the fourth we are still unsure of. There is a vast amount of chain between the anchors, each anchor stands roughly 2m tall and are mostly uncovered. In the same general area we have found what appears to be two half's of an anchor winch, these artefacts are difficult to give a good description as they are buried beneath the sand. We have found what appears to be an eye that may have been used to run rope through or something to that effect, as well as a small concrete block with chain wrapped around it. We have also found what seems to be a metal triangular plate, however this item is buried under the sand and are unable to see its true size. At this point we have not found the boundaries of our site yet as we continue to discover artefacts the more we search. Please note the diving conditions are poor with visability ranging between 30cm-3m. The photos submitted have been processed through Lightroom to bring out as much detail as possible. We believe this is of historical interest due the era the admiralty anchors were used. We hope we can add to the history of our town Hermanus as there are no other shipwrecks that have been published in Walkerbay since the Birkenhead.