Danger Point Lighthouse is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

on the southern point of

Walker Bay Walker Bay is a large bay located in the south-western Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the next major bay between False Bay near Cape Town and Cape Agulhas to the south-east. The bay is famous for having some of the best land based wh ...

, near

Gansbaai Gansbaai (Dutch/Afrikaans for "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay or Gangs Bay) is a fishing town and popular tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense populatio ...

, in South Africa. It is a white octagonal masonry tower that has been in use since 1895.

History

Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the o ...

originally named Danger Point ''Ponte de Sao Brandao'' when he landed there on May 16, 1488. The name Danger Point is derived from the treacherous reefs and rocks below the water that make it very dangerous for ships to sail close to the coast. The area is also known for the many

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...

s that are found here. Birkenhead plaque, Danger Point

More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai. The troopship HMS ''Birkenhead'' was wrecked off Danger Point in 1852. A barely visible rock (now aptly named ''Birkenhead Rock'') from Danger Point, was fatal for the troopship carrying young Welsh and Scottish soldiers and their officers and family on their way to Eastern Cape to

fight Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

the

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

. The ''Birkenhead'' became famous because it was the first shipwreck where the "

women and children first ''Women and Children First'' is the third studio album by American Rock music, rock band Van Halen, released on March 26, 1980, on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee, it was the first Van Halen album no ...

" protocol was applied. All women and children were saved but most of the men perished. There were only 193 survivors. In 1895, the Danger Point Lighthouse was built, providing more security for the ships in these dangerous waters. A lighthouse commission of 1890 stressed the need for a light at Danger Point and in May 1892 engineer W T Douglass submitted a report on a lighthouse at Danger Point. The light was first exhibited on 1 January 1895. The octagonal structure is tall and emits three beams of light every forty seconds.

References

External links

Birkenhead Rock

{{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1895 Lighthouses in South Africa Monuments and memorials in South Africa Buildings and structures in the Western Cape

History

See also

References

External links