HYPATIA AGROUND

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 31, 31 October 1929, Page 11

HYPATIA AGROUND

FIRMLY FIXED ON WHALE ROCK ALL HOPE OF SALVING ABANDONED Cape Town, October 29. The steamer Hypatia, in the direct cargo service between South Africa and New York, grounded at Whale Rock, a mile off Robben Island, at the entrance to Table Bay, at five in the morning in a mist. She arrived six weeks ago, and went as far as Beira, where she loaded a large quantity of copper ore and also hides at coast ports. She was fully loaded. She is now firmly fixed. She has a crew of 75, of whom 15 are white. There was no panic. Two lifeboats were rowed to the mainland, and tugs were sent out for the remainder of the crew and salved the officers’ belongings and ship’s papers. Owing to the swell it is impossible to approach the rock, which is tearing out the ship’s bottom. The Hypatia will probably become a total wreck. Later. All hope of salving the Hypatia has been abandoned. [The Hypatia is a single screw steamer of 5728 tons, built by Palmers’ Company, Ltd., Newcastle, in 1902, and owned by the British and South American S.N. Company, and managed by R. P. Houston and Co.]