Dr Bruno Werz from the African Institute for Marine and Underwater Research, Exploration and Education (AIMURE) is leading a team to try and find the wreck of the Haerlam (or Haarlam) - click here for details. The wrecking of the Haerlam is recognised by many as the catalyst that led to the establishment of a refreshment station which later developed into the City of Cape Town. In 1975 Mervyn Emms used various archival sources to estimate the location of the wreck. His findings were published in the first edition of Restorica (1975) and are republished below with the kind permission of the University of Pretoria.
On the 25 March 1647 the Dutch ship Haerlem ran aground in the surf at Table Bay. There is considerable vagueness about the exact position of this wreck and writers generally refer to it as being at or near the mouth of the Salt River. In attempting to assess its position let us look at the evidence of its position as stated by various sources. Here we must however bear in mind that the distances given are rough estimates and that a Dutch mile is actually about three English miles and may be as much as four on land.
Tracing of hydrographical chart by Admiralty 1933 shows wreck of Haerlam
In the diary of Leendert Janssens for March 26 1647...
