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 e ...

region of South Africa, close to

Cape Agulhas Cape Agulhas (; , "Cape of Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of Africa and the beginning of the traditional dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian oceans according to the In ...

, the southernmost tip of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

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

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

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

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The ship lacked a chronometer — 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 lett ...

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 the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and incorporating estimates of speed, heading (or direction or course), and elapsed time. T ...

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 one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

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 Andrew Geils (here spelled "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 (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing 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 ...

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

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

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 sp ...

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. ...

is a popular tourist activity. 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 I ...

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
{{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