Annabella Bank
The ship Annabella, 200
tons, Capt. Louis Wilson, arrived on the 21st January [1856]. She was unable
to come inside until the 26th, when she crossed the Bar in charge of
a Pilot, with the Master at the wheel, and attended by a steady N.E. breeze.
There was said to have been 16 foot of
water on the Bar, but, there being a
moderate sea on, she touched between the swells, lost steerage way, and drifted
on to the Lee Bank, where she was taken aback in an unsuccessful attempt to
make a stern board (i.e. get off backwards), and so swing round head to sea.
Notwithstanding attempts to move her, she hung on the bank all night.
The crew were landed, and
next morning she was found to have 8 feet of water in her hold. Heavy seas had
set in and her seams having opened, all hope of her floating again was
abandoned, though efforts were made to discharge her cargo of general
merchandise, the greater part of which was damaged and passed under the hammer
of Mr. Auctioneer Acutt, who disposed of the hull and cargo left on board on the
4th February.
Captain L Wilson eventually
settled here with his wife and family, and became a Burgess of Durban on
establishing a Ship Chandler’s business at the Point, where he has been
succeeded by his son, Mr L J Wilson.
The Annabella, not so
fortunate as the Princess, gave her name to that locality, and the Annabella
Bank became, in all Harbour Board records and reports, synonymous with the
earlier Lee Bank. The existing North Pier passes over the site of the disaster
and marks the grave of the Annabella. The Lee Bank has, in consequence,
asserted its prior rights, calls Nature to its aid, and continually obtrudes
itself in unexpected places to the perplexity of Engineers and navigators.
[G.Russell's History of Old Durban]
