Ikan Tanda Redux
The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden beyond the northern end of Scarborough beach on the rocky coastline of Schuster’s Bay opposite the spot where this ship foundered.
It may be accessed from the Scarborough Beach car park.
The hide became possible with the archiving of the cache GC2AA9W SS: Ian Tanda which was part of Paddawan’s legendary ~93-cache Shipwreck Series. This caused huge excitement and a flurry of activity when launched on 1/12/20 and has provided hours of geocaching entertainment for many geocachers ever since. The series was subsequently adopted by BoazRuthFields.
Sadly, it is becoming gradually depleted over the years as more caches are archived, having gone missing and not able to be replaced. This one was archived on 26/8/23 after multiple DNFs having had 229 finds and gained 3FPs. The text below is adapted from the original cache description.
The Ikan Tanda, a general dry cargo bulk carrier, was completed in 1979 as the Amazon by Ishikawajima Kure of Japan. The 17,800 DWT vessel was later sold to PACC Ship Managers Pte. Ltd. of Singapore where it was duly registered. It was 145.5m long and had a beam (width) and draft (max. depth) of 13.1m.
About 40 km from Cape Town on 5 September 2000, the ship suffered a fire in its engine room and a subsequent loss of power. This normally would not have been a severe problem, but the ship was in a major storm at the time and began drifting toward land. After 3 hours it was in shallow enough water to drop anchor, but the 10m swells and 50 knot winds overpowered the anchors and drove the vessel over a gap in the reef and aground on a sandbank 300m off the beach.
She was carrying 15,500 tonnes of various fertiliser ingredients including potassium nitrate, potassium sulphate, potassium chloride and Boronat in 5 holds from Chile to Singapore with a scheduled crew change in Cape Town.
With the storm still raging, South African Air Force (SAAF) Oryx helicopters were sent to lift the ship's 23-man crew to safety. 18 crew members were lifted off, while the Captain, Chief Mate and 3 other crew members decided to stay on board to help the salvage effort. The crew were first brought to the Camel Rock restaurant in Scarborough, which became the rescue operation ‘HQ’ for the following 14 days.
The deep sea salvage tug John Ross arrived after a 5-hour journey through 7-8m swells, but couldn't hook up a tow-line because of the rough seas. In the days following the salvors Smit Pentow Marine pumped 230 tonnes of oil from the vessel to prevent pollution with UCT testing the ocean water every day.
Procedures to prepare the ship for towing off continued, and salvors still believed the ship could be pulled off the rocks by the tug which maneuvered to within half a nautical mile of the Ikan Tanda in a test to see how close she could get. The ship's bows were also being prepared to take the strain of towing.
In preparation for the refloating phase of the operation, the 94.6m 19,200HP salvage tug Wolraad Woltemade and the anchor handler Pentow Skua were mobilized to Schuster Bay, just off Scarborough. The first refloating attempt took place during the afternoon high tide of Tuesday 16 October - the ship finally being successfully refloated on the 03h30 high tide on Wednesday 17 October. This successful conclusion marked 6 long weeks of hard work which was celebrated by a party held by Smit Pentow Marine for the residents of Scarborough and Misty Cliffs.
After the refloating, the convoy of tug and tow headed back over the gap in the reef and out to sea where a full assessment of the vessel was completed and her list corrected from to 25o to 3o. After a week under tow, during which time unsuccessful attempts were made by the owners to bring her into a South African port for full assessment and possible repair*, the vessel was on Friday 26 October declared a ‘constructive total loss’ and should be scuttled.
[*The SA Maritime Safety Authority refused to allow the ship into Cape Town harbour unless the ship's owners could provide iron-clad guarantees that they would pay for any costs incurred if she sank. Samsa's tough approach comes after hard lessons were learnt when the damaged bulk carrier Treasure sank off Melkbosstrand in the previous June, spewing out some 13,000 tons of fuel oil onto the coastline which contaminated over 20,000 endangered African penguins.]
She was towed out to sea where the salvors removed all floatable gear including life rafts, opened the necessary valves, and cut holes in strategic places aboard the vessel. It sank at 20h30 the next day approx. 200 miles west of Cape Town - the crew aboard Wolraad Woltemade witnessing ‘a very moving event’. One account states that ‘all her lights were on as if dressed for a special occasions, and like that she disappeared into the ocean’.
The tug Wolraad Woltemade which had towed the Ikan Tanda out to sea, remained on the scene until Monday morning to monitor for possible oil and debris. No oil was observed, but next morning a hatch cover surfaced and then later sank joining the rest of the ship on the ocean floor.
See here for an interesting illustrated account of the refloating and sinking.
While the ship was stranded, Capetonians thronged Scarborough with cameras and binoculars, speculating on whether the ship could be refloated. Although neither the vessel nor cargo posed any danger, the authorities periodically and inexplicably closed the road and when important equipment had to be brought to the scene, a police escort had to get it through the traffic jams – mostly caused by the road-blocks!
Cafes offered ‘shipwreck specials and the village took on the atmosphere of a fair. Surfers rode the shore break treating the ship as a novelty, scooting past its immobile bow, where a pair of heavy chains led futilely to anchors that had failed to hold the ship at sea,
Having discovered the delightful Scarborough, some wreck-gazers bought property and subsequently it seems that the incident had escalated property prices.
