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Cape Agulhas is located in the Overberg region, 170 kilometres (105 mi) southeast of Cape Town.The cape was named by Portuguese navigators, who called it Cabo das Agulhas—Portuguese for "Cape of Needles"—after noticing that around the year 1500 the direction of magnetic north (and therefore the compass needle) coincided with true north in the region. [2]
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 160 kilometres (100 mi) south-east of Cape Town and 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa.
The ships collided in dense fog off Stilbaai, near Cape Agulhas. The oil vapours in the Texanita's two empty tanks ignited, creating a massive explosion that tore the ship apart, causing it to sink in four minutes with the loss of 47 of its 50 crew; [2] the explosion was heard 63 miles (101 km) away, inland from the coast.
A lighthouse at Cape Agulhas was suggested by Colonel Charles Collier Michell, the Surveyor-General of the Cape, in March 1837. A public meeting at Cape Town on 11 July 1840 resolved to raise funds for the construction of the lighthouse, and Michiel van Breda , the founder of Bredasdorp , offered to donate the land on which it was to be built.
Consequently, instead of being 100 miles (160 km) west of the Cape of Good Hope as presumed, the ship was closing on the reef at Waenhuiskrans near Cape Agulhas. The anchors were unable to hold the heavy ship in the storm, so on 30 May near 4 pm, Lieutenant Brice advised Captain Simpson to ground the ship to save the lives of those aboard. [6]
A three-masted iron sailing ship that ran aground near the Cape of Good Hope. [25: Cospatrick United Kingdom: 17 November 1874 A wooden 3-masted full-rigged sailing ship that caught fire and sank south of the Cape of Good Hope, with a loss of 369 lives.
The Agulhas National Park is a South African national park located in the Agulhas Plain in the southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south-east of Cape Town. The park stretches along the coastal plain between the towns of Gansbaai and Struisbaai , and includes the southern tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas .
This is a list of shipwrecks located in the main body of the Atlantic Ocean, rather than in one of its marginal seas.. For shipwrecks elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean and its marginal seas, see List of shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean.