Abandoned boat leads to probing
The two have been hard at work trying to track down historians to help trace the boat's history.
It was an unusual morning for Gareth Bate and his father Gavin, when they noticed an old boat peeping out of the Mzimkhulu River on Tuesday.
The father and son own a sand dredging business and were going about their daily work at the river when they made the odd discovery.
“I saw the front end of the boat sticking out and we then made arrangements to excavate it,” explained Gareth.
The two have been hard at work trying to track down historians to help trace the boat’s history.
Entering through an estuary in Port Shepstone and flowing southeast into the Indian Ocean, the Mzimkhulu River is the second fastest flowing river in KwaZulu-Natal.
The river played a pivotal role in promoting trade and navigation between the Europeans and Zulus, especially in the 1820s, and its banks were later used to grow sugarcane, tea and coffee.
The area also saw people of many origins settling there including German, Norwegian and Indian indentured labourers which contributed to the multicultural communities we see today.
For all these reasons, the possibilities of where this newly discovered boat came from seem endless.
It has remained largely in tact for the most part with little evidence pointing to what it was actually used for or how old it could be.
While no information has yet been found, the public is encouraged to share whatever knowledge they have relating to this mysterious and unexpected abandoned boat.
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