Excited staff of Adventure's Edge Dive and Training Centre, which is located at the Dias Beach, noticed a dark silhouette of a wreck just beneath the surface on Tuesday. There are two wrecks in the vicinity - the Rosebud and the King Cenric - and the centre's divers couldn't wait to go out and have a closer look, to determine which of the two wrecks had washed open.
Adventures Edge's owner, Daniel Rogers, and a co-diver went to investigate and came back convinced that it was the King Cenric and not the Rosebud, which lies further in, in about 15m of water.
He told the Mossel Bay Advertiser that he had studied an old photograph of the actual shipwreck and "if you look at the picture of it and then dive on it, there's no mistaking it". He says the main mast of the vessel is still lying exactly in the position it was when she disappeared from sight many years ago. Plus, the current position is very close to the research co-ordinates of the wreck's location.
Rogers says it is only the second time in seven years that he has seen a glimpse of the King Cenric, as the tides keep burying her underneath sand. Very few people have had the opportunity to see her up close, so he considers himself extremely lucky.
The King Cenric went under on 14 November 1903 - which makes it quite special that she revealed herself just a week before the 110-year anniversary.
Sadly, the illusive King Centric has disappeared from sight again - an Easterly swell entered the bay that very same afternoon and by Wednesday, one could only see something dark hiding beneath the surface - possibly a rock, maybe even a figment of the imagination.
However, video footage of the dive was captured and Rogers kindly agreed to share some of the still frames of the video with the Mossel Bay Advertiser. The video can be seen on Adventure's Edge's Facebook page.
'A storm of terrifying fury'
The King Cenric was a 1519-ton wooden Norwegian sailing ship that was built in Canada in 1874 for the Vaughan Brothers in Liverpool. She had many owners and travelled the world, but eventually ended up being sold to a Norwegian company.
Her last voyage was from Frederikstad, Norway to Mossel Bay, with a cargo of Baltic timber. She was wrecked on 14 November 1903 in a south-east gale, described in a 1903 newspaper article as 'a storm of terrifying fury'. At least seven vessels went ashore that day.
The King Cenric had two anchors down, but both cables parted and the ship took ground. Everyone on board was rescued by the Rocket Apparatus. This, according to the 24 December 1903 article in the Poverty Bay Herald, included Captain A Paulsen, his wife and child, and a crew of 19.
Get involved
Rogers calls on divers in Mossel Bay to help protect our underwater heritage. An initiative to conserve the area's maritime heritage, in collaboration with the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (MUCH) of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), was announced in September.
"As divers who know the local reefs and most of the wrecks, we can be the local eyes and ears for both the marine biologists and the underwater archaeologists," he says.
For more information, also visit the Adventure's Edge Facebook page.
"Chances are if we could block the water movement and clear some sand away, most of the wreck will prove to be buried and still largely in tact!" says Daniel Rogers, who managed to capture this image of the King Cenric on Tuesday.Photo: Daniel Rogers
ARTICLE BY TERSIA MARAIS & MARI SCOTT
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