SS Mendi
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SS Mendi was a steamship of the Elder Dempster Line, chartered by the British government as a troopship, which sank off the Isle of Wight in 1917 with the loss of 646 lives. The Mendi sinking is considered one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the South African military, and was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century in British waters.
On 21 February 1917, during World War I, the Mendi was transporting 823 members of the 802nd South African Native Labour Corps to France. She had sailed from Cape Town to Plymouth, befor proceeding towards Le Havre. At 5am, she was struck and cut almost in half by the liner, SS Darro (11,000 BRT).
616 South Africans (607 of them black troops) plus 30 British crew members died in the disaster.<ref name="Fatalities">Template:Cite web</ref> The wreck lies 11.3 nautical miles from Saint Catherine’s Light.
Oral history records that the men met their fate with great dignity. Their chaplain, Reverend Isaac Dyobha, is reported to have calmed the panicked men by raising his arms aloft and crying out in a loud voice:
- "Be quiet and calm, my countrymen. What is happening now is what you came to do ... you are going to die, but that is what you came to do. Brothers, we are drilling the death drill. I, a Xhosa, say you are my brothers ... Swazis, Pondos, Basotho ... so let us die like brothers. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war-cries, brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais in the kraal, our voices are left with our bodies."
The incident remains a largely forgotten aspect of World War I, both in terms of the loss of life and in relation to the role of African labourers in the war.
Memorials
This event is commemorated by a number of memorials in South Africa, Britain and France, as well as in the names of two South African Navy ships:
- SAS Isaac Dyobha, a Warrior class fast attack craft, and probably one of the few naval warships in the world named after a cleric.
- SAS Mendi, a Valour class frigate.
See also
Further reading
- Norman Clothier - Black Valour - The South African Native Labour Contingent, 1916-1918 and the Sinking of the Mendi (University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 1987) ISBN 0869805649