The São João Series

Date: 18 June 1552

Place: Port Edward, Kwazulu Natal, RSA

Passengers and crew: 600

Survivors: 21

Death toll: 100 drowned, 479 died on the journey to Mozambique

The Portuguese ship São João (after which Port St Johns was named),  was a large 900 ton galleon, built in Lisbon, Portugal’s shipyards in 1550. Its first voyage was to India.  

On her return she had left Cochin, India, on 3 February 1552 loaded with pepper, Chinese porcelain, (which dates back to the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty(1522-66), cornelian beads from Cochin, cowrie shells and other merchandise. Her rigging was damaged in a storm, its hull was broken into 3 parts on the rocks near Port Edward in KwaZulu Natal. A hundred people drowned and the rest of them, led by the captain, Manuel de Souza e Sepulveda, a Portuguese nobleman, undertook a difficult five and a half month march to the mouth of the Maputo River in Mozambique. 

The captain, his wife, Leanora,  their two children, and most of the survivors from the wreck died in attacks by local groups, or from disease and starvation on the gruelling journey. Only seven Europeans and fourteen slaves reached Mozambique.  

There is a memorial at the São João site in Port Edward.

“Manuel de Sousa DE SEPULVEDA, …, buried his wife and children in silence, walked off alone in the bush and was never seen again.” (Crampton, 79).

Bibliography

Crampton, Hazel; The Sunburnt Queen: A True Story; 2004; Johannesburg : Jacana.

South African History Online. (2017). Disaster strikes as Portuguese ship São João sinks. [online] Available at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/disaster-strikes-portuguese-ship-sao-joao-sinks [Accessed 25 Mar. 2017].http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/disaster-strikes-portuguese-ship-sao-joao-sinks]

profile, V. (2017). THE EARLY PORTUGUESE SETTLERS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [online] Southafricanresearcher.blogspot.co.za. Available at: http://southafricanresearcher.blogspot.co.za/2010/04/early-portuguese-settlers-in-south.html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2017].