Title: Wreck of barque Royal Albert in Table Bay
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1850
Unframed: 45cm x 62cm
Framed: 69cm x 86cm
Cape Town owed everything to the sea, ships from all over the world rode at anchor in Table Bay, but the anchorage remained totally unprotected with no harbour facilities. Visitors to the city had to reach shore by rowboat and climb off onto a wooden jetty not far from the Castle. Between 1839 and 1854 more than 200 vessels were wrecked along the South African coast. In 1842 one storm destroyed 7 ships and 190 people lost their lives. Twelve years later 16 ships wrecked within a fortnight between Salt River and Blaauwberg. Bowler often recorded in detail the destruction caused by the stormy Cape weather (Pama 1977:25).
Tragically two of Bowler’s children died because of the treacherous Cape waters. One son of his first marriage died from exposure after a shipwreck in December 1863 and another by drowning in July 1869 (Ancestors South Africa 2019:1).
