Mystery on South Africa Beaches: The Ghosts of WW2 in Port Elizabeth

More and more rubber bales are washing up, these 5 are at The Tanks in Schoenies. Thanks to Mike Klee we know where they probably came from: "The ship torpedoed and sunk on the 11th February 1943 by the German submarine U-516 was the British freighter " Helmspey".
The cargo of the " Helmspey" - steaming from Colombo. Ceylon to the UK and with a stop at East London consisted of:
* 2772 tons of tea,
* 2000 tons of manganese ore
* 1457 tons of rubber, and
* 464 tons of general cargo
She was sunk 11 miles south of Cape St Francis.
Lest we view these just as bales of rubber, it is important to remember that 5 men out of the 46 men aboard lost their lives in this incident..."
Join us as we travel South Africa and the world on escapades to enjoy life to the fullest, and experience the world around us through our own senses.
Visit my trading channel at / @arcisfx to see what I do for a living as a professional trader and (now) RUclipsr!
Or follow me on Twitter at / arcisfx

[@wsidetravel]

I stand foolishly corrected. Thanks for this comment from @russellegan1: "The SS HELMSPEY which was torpedoed 10 miles off seal point Lighthouse boa German u boat during the Second World War They come ashore after extremely heavy surf conditions. They have been coming ashore for many years 🤓🧐

[@Afriqueleblanq]

You are correct. We had these at Franskraal 25 years ago.

[@ezrashortles8728]

Cool stuff

[@caeruleusvm7621]

Fascinating. Thanks for showing this.

[@wsidetravel]

Glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@altGoolam]

General boss

[@GarethRutherford-hn6ff]

I've seen those layered rubber bales long ago in knysna.very weathered... with stripes and layered.. and sunburnt..

[@arcisfx]

Yes, the stripes are interesting 🙂

[@wsidetravel]

Very cool!

[@russellegan1]

From Malcolm Turner: This guy has it wrong
The so called covers on bales are
The marks from the moulds in which the latex was poured
The bales come from Malaysia
They were being carried on board
The SS HELMSPEY which was torpedoed 10 miles off seal point Lighthouse boa German u boat during the Second World War
They come ashore after extremely heavy surf conditions
They have been coming ashore for many years 🤓🧐

[@arcisfx]

Fantastic info. Thanks 😀There are, however, woven covers on the bales as you can see in the video, unless I'm totally mistaken.

[@ferrosjewellers4558]

now if you were clever enough, you would be walking the beach with a metal detector and finding gold/silver coins washed up.