The steam Boiler of the Kakapo

THE KAKAPO
This is where Micheal in Ryan's daughter gave the Major the German gun's meant for the IRA....The Major then comitted suicide....Pic of the day.
Named for a rare flightless New Zealand parrot, the Kakapo was a 665 ton, schooner rigged steel steamship, built in Grangemouth, Scotland in 1898. In early 1900 she was sold to the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand.
On 25th May 1900 the Kapapo put into Cape Town harbor for coal. Coaling was completed the same afternoon allowing her Danish captain, Niels Pete Fischer Nicolayson, to continue the voyage to Australia with little delay. The Kakapo appears to have been his first command.
A North-Westerly gale was picking up and as the Kakapo steamed south, the storm increased in strength. Despite the storm she kept running at her top speed of 9.5 knots.
The seas were huge and accompanied by driving rain - visibility was virtually reduced to zero. The officer-of-the-watch mistook Chapmans Peak for Cape point and once past Chapmans Peak he ordered ‘hard to port full steam ahead’. This resulted in her high and dry as she hit the beach at nearly full power.
The Kakapo
Two of the crew managed to get down on the sand via a rope ladder and wandered across the veld until they were drawn by a light to the milking sheds on the farm Brakkloof. They raised the alarm and the rest of the crew were rescued. Over the next ten days a number of unsuccessful attempts were made by a Cape Town tug to pull the Kakapo off the beach. She was too embedded in the soft sands and the Union Steam Ship Company lost its new steamer before taking delivery. The ship immediately became the victim of looting and two local residents were prosecuted for helping themselves to liquor and fabric.
Captain Nicolayson chose to remain onboard the ship and refused to show himself as sightseers and reporters arrived on the scene. The only communication with him was by means of messages stuck in bottles, which he hauled aboard by rope.
Legend has it that he continued living about the Kakapo for a further three years. During this period smoke was seen coming from the funnel although it is more likely that a vagrant made the ship his home. In the subsequent enquiry it was found that the ship had been navigated without ‘proper or seamanlike care’ and his ticket was suspended for three months.
The boiler, rudders and ribs still protrude from the sand and featured in the Academy award winning film, Ryan’s Daughter. The wreck can still be accessed by means of a delightful 40 minute walk along the lovely unspoiled beach. Park at the Noordhoek beach parking lot. For those traveling along Chapmans Peak Drive, the lonely outline of the ship bedded in the sand can still be seen in the distance.