A tragedy 95 years ago triggered what today has become Freight News.On August 10th, 1928, the 10 494-ton Vestr i s, under the command of Capt W J Carey, with 128 passengers and 197 crew on board, left New York for Barbados and Buenos Aires.Some 24 hours after sailing, the ship encountered heavy weather and at 19:30 on the 11th was struck by two waves “of exceptional size”, according to a report in the publication Viceroy of India.The waves hit with terrific force, f looding the boat deck and washing two lifeboats from their chocks.Some of the cargo and bunker coal shifted to starboard and the ship took a heavy list from which she did not recover, taking water beyond the capacity of her pumps.The Captain only sent out an SOS the following morning.Shortly afterwards, the firemen, who had been working under very difficult conditions, came up on deck and refused to return. Their duties fell on the engineers, but an hour later they too gave up, by which time the Vestr i s had a list of 32 degrees. Captain Carey then gave the order to abandon ship, and soon after the last serviceable boat got under way, the ship sank. Captain Carey and 43 of the crew and 68 passengers drowned.At the time, John Henry Marsh was a 14-year-old pupil at Sea Point Boys High. Every day he would take his Brownie box camera after school, go to the Victoria and Alfred basins and photograph ships that had arrived.As it happens, John had taken the last known picture of the Vestr i s, which had recently passed through Cape Town. A chance remark by his mother to the editor of the Cape Argus led to his first paid work as a journalist.The editor was so impressed with John’s passion for maritime matters that three months later John was writing a regular weekly column on famous ships. After school, he learned his trade as a general journalist, but by 22 was appointed shipping editor.Shipping then was critical to the Cape, and John would be the first up the gangplank when ships arrived, asking the Captain if any maritime drama had taken place on the voyage (which in those days was often the case).His newspaper published up to eight broadsheet pages each afternoon on shipping.John continued to take photographs of all ships that came to the Cape until 1942.He carefully annotated his photographs, and in retirement until his death in 1995, wrote the histories of the ships.He wrote a best-selling account of the human drama surrounding the wreck of the Dunedin Star called Skeleton Coast.He resigned from the Cape Argus in 1953, starting with his wife, Leona, a specialist publishing business.News about freight was covered in his media until 1973 when Freighting News Fortnightly was launched as a dedicated freight newspaper.The collection of his 20 000 photographs of some 9 551 ships was accessible at the Iziko Museum’s John H Marsh Maritime Research Centreuntil it recently went into storage.Meantime, Cape Town is waiting for the Department of Arts and Culture to restore a maritime museum to a city known as ‘The Tavern of The Seas’. ** Publisher’s note: As a good example of how online media has released creative juices, look at what the Port of Maputo has done in their advert on page 9. Make sure you scan their QR code
