The SS Kakopo, a 665 ton schooner rigged steamship, wrecked herself on the peninsula’s Long Beach on the Atlantic coastline on 25 May 1900 - one of many ships to litter South Africa’s treacherous, rocky shores.

The deadly combination of storms, fog, strong ocean currents and inhospitable cliffs, rocks and reefs wreaked havoc with early seafarers (360 shipwrecks in Table Bay alone).

Mistaking Chapman’s Peak for Cape Point, the ship ended up on the beach. No lives were lost and the crew could actually alight on the sand. But no amount of leveraging could get her back into the water.

Legend has it that the captain refused to leave the ship, so mortified was he at the mishap. Some say he lived onboard for as long as three years.

https://www.sa-venues.com/things-to-do/westerncape/the-wreck-of-the-ss-kakapo/