Arniston is a small seaside settlement on the coast of the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the ...

region of South Africa, close to

Cape Agulhas Cape Agulhas (; pt, Cabo das Agulhas , "Cape of the Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian ...

, the southernmost tip of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Prior to the wreck of , it is also known as Waenhuiskrans, an

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

name meaning literally "Wagon house cliff", after a local sea cave large enough to accommodate a wagon and a span of oxen.

Wreck of ''Arniston''

In May 1815, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

, ''Arniston'', was rounding the Cape in convoy on a journey to repatriate wounded British soldiers from

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. The ship lacked a

chronometer A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and th ...

– an expensive instrument at the time – and consequently had to rely on other ships in the fleet to calculate the

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

of the group. After being separated from the convoy in heavy seas, the captain of ''Arniston'' was obliged to rely solely on

dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...

to navigate. Thinking incorrectly that he was west of the Cape of Good Hope because of lack of headway, led to an incorrect assumption that Cape Agulhas was Cape Point. Consequently, Arniston was wrecked when her captain headed north for St Helena, operating on the incorrect belief the ship had already passed Cape Point, the master steered north for

St Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

and ran the ship onto the rocks at Waenhuiskrans. Only six of the 378 people on board survived the wrecking. The survivors spent several days on the beach before being discovered by a farmer's son. A memorial, a replica of which can be seen today, was erected on the beach by the wife of Colonel Giels, whose four unaccompanied children were lost in the tragedy. The memorial bears the following inscription: Over the years, the name of the wreck has become synonymous with the name of the location and today the labels 'Arniston' and 'Waenhuiskrans' are used interchangeably.

Today

At first only a fishing community, Arniston has become a holiday destination and its hinterland a region for

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

. The fishing village, characterized by its lime-washed and

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

ed houses, remains unspoiled and has been declared a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

in its entirety. Fishermen still go to sea in boats of the style that would have been familiar to locals in the early nineteenth century, although now under contract to larger commercial enterprises.

Whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins ( cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...

is a popular tourist activity. The Arniston Hotel is a popular tourist destination that looks out over the ocean. The closest major town is

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agu ...

, to the north. The

Overberg Test Range The Denel Overberg Test Range is a weapons systems testing facility in the Overberg region on the south coast of South Africa, near Arniston, Western Cape. It includes launch pads and tracking systems. It was used to test the RSA series of Is ...

is situated adjacent to the town.

References

Remembering Arniston: A Bicentenary Picture Book in Commemoration of the Wreck of the HMS Arniston, South Africa, 30 May 1815 Paperback

External links

Local Tourism Authority

Arniston Lodge Home Page

Arniston (ship)

Arniston / Waenhuiskrans

History of Arniston

Hotagterklip and Kassiesbaai - Conservation and community challenges of two fishing villages in the Overberg - Ashley Lillie, 1995
Remembering Arniston {{Authority control Monuments and memorials in South Africa Tourist attractions in the Western Cape Maritime history of South Africa Populated places in the Cape Agulhas Local Municipality Populated coastal places in South Africa South African heritage sites