Herodotus, the father of historians, recorded:
” Thus the Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea and sailed the southern sea the Indian Ocean); whenever autumn came they would put in and plant the land in whatever part of Libya (Africa) they had reached, and there await the harvest; then, having gathered the crop, they sailed on, so that after two years had passed, it was in the third that they rounded the pillars of Heracles (Gibraltar) and came to Egypt. There, they reported a thing, which I cannot believe, but another man may, namely, that in sailing round Libya they had the sun on their right hand (North).
Herodotus, Histories 4.42
Surveyor-General’s Office, 26th July 1852
Sir,
I have the honour to report for the information of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, the result of my enquiries, as I heard of the wreck of an ancient ship at Tygerberg, which I had then disregarded thinking it impossible that the Isthmus could have been so far submerged within Historic Times – but that the description of the carbonized wood and iron-bolts was very much like that of Sir John Barrow’s Ligneous Blocks with Iron Pyrites running through them. His Honour requested me to trace my authorities, examine the locality if it could be found, and enquire further. I did so on Friday and I have handed specimens of the wood to His Honour. However extraordinary it may seem, I am compelled to believe that this wood is part of a large vessel upward of seventy feet in length, wrecked when the sea washed up to some of the ancient sea beaches on the Tygerberg and now raised hundreds of feet above the present high-water mark and left at a distance of at least 10 miles from the shore. This wreck seems to have been washed open by change in the course of the Hardekraaltjie stream about thirty years ago. It is embedded in stiff clay about ten or twelve feet deep, and when first seen the ribs and knees stood up above the surface to a height of perhaps five feet, partially connected by the planks of one side. These have from time to time been broken off and carried away. About twenty years ago, it is said, that nearly a wagon load was collected and sent to England, from which a reply came that “no one could tell what wood it was!” One informant told me that only a short time ago he had carried off a large knee, that there were Iron Bolts or Treenails, but no copper, and that it was not so long ago that he had seen the children of one of his relations playing with one Block Sheaves found at the wreck. All that I saw was the edge of the planking, or what I suppose to be such, shewing itself in the bank for a length of about 70 feet. It would be idle to indulge at present in any Archaeological speculations. I would merely allude to the accounts which have reached our times of the early circum-navigation of Africa while the Pyramids were yet new. The Block cannot be taken as evidence of recent construction, for Blocks are pictured and carved by the Ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, and if, solely from position, I advert to the possibility of this being a relic perhaps of the age of Pharaoh Necho, and to the care with which of late years the Archaeologists of Europe have collected and classed all that relates to the prehistoric Annals of their country. I do so, only that the chance of some interesting discovery may not be lost.
Your obedient Servant,
(Sgd.) Charles Bell, Surveyor-General
Sailing around Africa was certainly possible; Phoenician ships of the period were ocean worthy, they had sailed through the straits of Gibraltar and down the African coast. No navigational aids were needed as long as the expedition kept in sight of the coast. But it became a problem when one tried to cross an ocean and reach a certain point; you needed to know exactly where you are and for this the longitude was necessary.
In the 18th century, the British parliament offered price money of £20,000 (comparable to £2.87 million / €3.47 million / R 32.43 million in modern currency) to invent and build a marine chronometer that can be used to calculate the longitude within half-a-degree (2 minutes of time). The methods would be tested on a ship, sailing over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such Port in the West Indies as those Commissioners (Board of Longitude) choose without losing their Longitude beyond the limits before mentioned and should prove to be tried and found practicable and useful at sea.
Longitude is usually expressed in degrees (marked with °) ranging from 0° at the Greenwich meridian to (A)(B)0° For every (C)(D) ° that one travels eastward, the local time moves one hour ahead. Similarly, traveling West, the local time moves back one hour for every (C)(D)° of longitude.
Therefore, if we know the local times at two points on Earth, we can use the difference between them to calculate how far apart those places are in longitude, east or west.
John Harrison managed, after a few attempts; to create a clock which was accurate enough, this clock was called the H(E) . Just 13 cm in diameter and weighing 1.45 kg, it looks like a very large pocket watch. Harrison's son William set sail for the West Indies, with the clock, aboard the ship Deptford on 18 November 1761. They arrived in Jamaica on 19 January 1762, where the watch was found to be only 5 seconds slow corresponding to an error in longitude of 1.25 minutes, or approximately one nautical mile. It was a remarkable achievement but it would be some time before the Board of Longitude was sufficiently satisfied to award Harrison the prize.
On May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight, eastern savings time, the great blue switch controlling selective availability was pressed. (F)(G) operational satellites around the globe processed their new orders, and instantly the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant upgrade.
Apparently, people tried to follow up on the above letter from Mr. Bell (after whom Bellville was named) until as late as 1944, from clues in the Archives to learn more about the so-called find, but with no result. It has therefore been decided that the help of geocachers was needed to solve the mystery of the lost Phoenician wreck, as they are well known for there ability to find things which should not be there!
The cache is at the following coordinates:
S 33.DF.EA(B-C) E 018.3(D+F).(D+C)G(E+F)
This is a muggle area, be careful.
