Wood, Iron and Steel is the title of a first-of-its-kind book in South Africa on 60 – known and unknown – shipwrecks that reflect the maritime history of the Western Cape. In this interview with BizNews, authors Bruce Henderson and Kelly Graham of Wreckless Marine, share their three-year-dive to map the seafloor. They describe how using cutting-edge scanning technology enabled them to view wrecks as never before, while on-site dives and extensive research helped them to provide a complete picture of these vessels. Covering the period 1698 to 2009, each entry incorporates technical data, history, the circumstances of loss, and a description of the wreck in its current resting place, accompanied by photographs or paintings, and vivid multibeam sonar images of the wrecks on the seafloor.
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Extended transcript of the interview
Chris Steyn (00:03.46)
Wood, Iron and Steel. That is the title of a book on 60 shipwrecks mapped off the Western Cape. We speak to the authors, Bruce Henderson and Kelly Graham Wreckless Marine. Welcome, Bruce, and welcome, Kelly.
Bruce Henderson (00:20.29)
Thank you, Chris. Thank you very much.
Kelly Graham (00:21.582)
Thank
Chris Steyn (00:22.884)
Bruce, May I start with you? What is the meaning of the title of your book?
Bruce Henderson (00:29.294)
Chris, it signifies what remains of the wrecks today on the seafloor. The criteria used to determine which wrecks we’re going to feature in the book was about what was still on the seafloor and visible that could be mapped. And it also indicates the time span across which these wrecks occurred with the early wrecks being made of wood and then a short period in the middle, iron, and then the more modern vessels made from steel.
Chris Steyn (01:06.628)
So Kelly, what period in South Africa’s maritime history does the book cover?
Kelly Graham (01:11.886)
So we’re covering from the late 1600s to 2009. We have 60 wrecks featured in the book. There are also a list of some wrecks that we haven’t been able to identify yet. So it’s a fairly significant span.
Chris Steyn (01:26.916)
Bruce, how long did it take you to survey all these wrecks?
Bruce Henderson (01:31.914)
Most of three years, yeah, so it’s three years now since we commenced the project, and I would say a good two and half of those years we were spent at sea. It included the mapping of a larger area of seabed, but that’s really what triggered the whole project is why we were mapping seafloor and came across the wrecks that we didn’t know. We wanted to document these wrecks. So it’s been a long time at sea and many, many hours of research which Kelly drove and took charge of. Yeah, but it’s been fun.
Chris Steyn (02:10.926)
Kelly, tell us about the technology you had to use.
Kelly Graham (02:15.255)
That’s really more a Bruce question, so I’m more on the research side. But yeah, we’ve basically been using a Multi-Beam Echo Sounder, but Bruce, maybe you want to chat a little bit more about the technology side of things.
Chris Steyn (02:17.645)
Okay.
Bruce Henderson (02:26.434)
Yeah, so as Kelly says, it’s a Multi-Beam Echo Sounder. And we have this aboard our fully-fledged survey vessel, Wreckless II. It’s an absolutely incredible technology. There’s not a lot of these machines in South Africa. At one stage, ours was the only one of this particular model. There are multi-beam units. But being a new machine, we were able to get the latest and greatest technology.
And it sends out over 1,000 beams across the seafloor, sonar beams; as one traverses, these sound waves are reflected back. And very much like we used to, we are familiar with sonar in the medical application. And similarly, we create images through these sound waves and incredibly vivid images, which we’ve been able to capture and then featured in the book.
Chris Steyn (03:30.148)
How many of these wrecks did you personally dive to?
Bruce Henderson (03:35.008)
I’m not sure the exact number. I would say the majority of them, two-thirds. And yeah, some of them we’re very, very familiar with all along. And then once we started this mapping project, it was an amazing process to see the big picture as such for the first time, because when you’re diving, especially in the Cape area, the visibility is not always great. So you know the wrecks fairly well, but we then see this big picture in high resolution. So it was a wonderful process of having dived on the wrecks, then mapped them, and then being able to go back and dive again and understand and appreciate the detail to a greater extent. But I’d say about two-thirds of the 60 wrecks I’ve dived.
Chris Steyn (04:21.326)
And you, Kelly?
Kelly Graham (04:23.374)
Probably slightly less than that. So some of them are still at an aspirational depth for me. So Bruce does our really deep stuff. I was familiar with quite a few of them, but quite a lot of the new discoveries are at a depth that are beyond my current certification level. So hopefully in 2025, it’s something to work towards and maybe get our former instructor down to come and continue our diving education so that we can go and have a look at them. There are some really amazing things down there.
Chris Steyn (04:52.57)
Kelly, which wreck did you find the most interesting?
Kelly Graham (04:57.676)
I think probably the Delver. This was my favourite just simply because when it was something that was previously unknown to us – and when Bruce sent through a picture of the multi-beam, we all thought, well, that’s really odd. It’s got a very strange profile and it was one that we weren’t sure what it was. So there was quite a huge amount of work involved in trying to figure out what kind of vessel it was. And it was actually a chance conversation that Bruce was having with one of his friends that led us to the type of vessel. And the Delver effectively was involved in dredging the Victorian Alfred Basin. So it was a lot of very interesting history.
And I think the other one was probably the King Emperor, again another one that we weren’t aware of. And it was something that was great fun to go and dig into the archives and really go and tease out the story and that sort of thing. So those are two that I find very interesting.
Chris Steyn (05:53.26)
And you Bruce, your favourite one.
Bruce Henderson (05:55.35)
Yeah, I don’t have an actual favourite and I’m probably coming at it more from a diving perspective, but I’m glad Kelly mentioned the Delver because that was such a weird-looking… you we thought it was an aeroplane and we didn’t have a clue what it was. And it turns out to be this old bucket dredger.
But from a diving perspective, there’s a wreck very close to Cape Town Harbour called the Gemsbok which went down in 1975, unfortunately with significant loss of life and that’s at about 50 between 55 and 60 meters and it is really really a beautiful dive. And that’s right up high on my top three.
And then there’s a huge bulk carrier relatively modern wreck that sank off Melkbosstand in the year 2000. Now this vessel is nearly 300 meters long so when you dive on it, it’s like diving on a
an oil refinery or a small city, it’s absolutely massive and quite confusing as to where you are on this vessel. And the multi-beam rarely assisted us in trying to figure out what was where. And I always enjoy that dive. It’s really intriguing. The scale of it is so impressive.
Chris Steyn (07:11.45)
Now your book is being launched this week, but it’s already selling very, well. I understand. Kelly, just tell us what does each entry contain? How much information is there for each wreck?
Kelly Graham (07:25.846)
It all follows a fairly safe formula. We have a table that sets out the technical specifications of every vessel. So its length, its breadth, its width, its depth. We indicate what depth it is on the sea floor, the date that it was built and then the date that it was lost. We then have a section on the history of the vessel, so what it got up during the period of its operation.
There’s a section on its circumstances of loss. And then there is a very detailed section of what the wreck looks like on the seafloor today. We’ve also included as far as possible images of the vessel and its heyday, an image of the wreck as you would dive it today. And then obviously the fantastic multi-beam images that we have, which is really the point of distinction, being able to really bring them to life as they are at the moment.
Chris Steyn (08:16.41)
Bruce, would you say this is a first of its kind book in South Africa?
Bruce Henderson (08:21.1)
Very much so. We came across a really impressive book from Ireland that included a lot of multi-beam images and that really gave us the idea and the format to follow. But this is very much the first of its kind and I think quite exciting to be able to show each of these wrecks so vividly as they lie on the seafloor today.
Chris Steyn (08:46.638)
Lastly, tell us a bit more about the work of Wreckless Marine. What all do you do?
Bruce Henderson (08:52.394)
And Chris, it really arose out of my passion for being on the ocean. I retired from my role in the food business, food industry about three years ago. And then really this sort of took on a full time nature in its own right. So we do a lot of this. We’ve taken on a lot of the seafloor mapping now with the equipment we have, survey work.
And I really enjoy collaborating with the scientific institutions and sharing data. And also technical diving is really an important part of what we do. So we try and spend a lot of time underwater. We have all the facilities for gas blending, et cetera, for mixed gas diving. And then we do some general charter work, but most of it is we try and align ourselves with the research institutions and just furthering the knowledge of what’s happening on our local coast.
Chris Steyn (09:58.414)
Do you have a second book in mind?
Bruce Henderson (10:01.326)
Not right now, we’ve got lots of projects lined up, but I’m sure there’s potential for more books in the future.
Chris Steyn (10:09.188)
Well, thank you. That was Bruce Anderson and Kelly Graham of Wreckless Marines speaking to BizNews about their book, Wood, Iron and Steel. And it’s a book on 60 shipwrecks mapped off the Western Cape. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Kelly. And I’m Chris Steyn
Bruce Henderson (10:28.514)
Thank you, Chris.
Kelly Graham (10:29.624)
Thank you.
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