A Swedish couple who moved to South Africa watched TV news reports in horror as their personal things were plundered from a ship stranded on the south coast of England, reported Die Burger on Wednesday.
Jan and Anita Bokdal shipped household goods valued at R100 000 from Sweden to Cape Town at the beginning of the year on the container ship, the MSC Napoli.
Stormy weather in the English Channel pounded the ship and, at the weekend, the captain decided to strand the Napoli near Plymouth.
About 40 containers from the ship were washed ashore and thousands of looters carried off goods ranging from BMW motorcycles to nappies.
England’s maritime laws allow salvaging on condition that the authorities are informed and that the goods are returned if the rightful owners claim them.
Michael Wheeler told the Times there was an expensive tea set in the Bokdals’ kist, but ”unfortunately some of the cups were broken”. He did not feel bad about the plundering, because if he didn’t take it the sea would have destroyed it.
The Bokdals realised their possessions were stranded when a British journalist traced them to their farm in Wellington in the Boland.
Photos taken by journalists on Monday showed people using bolt cutters to get at the contents of a wooden box with the Bokdals’ name on it.
”I can’t believe what is happening. The contents of the crate are our personal things, furniture, carpets and tapestries collected over many years. It should be clear to anyone that it is someone’s furniture,” said Anita Bokdal.
”I can hardly believe the British government is doing nothing to stop our things from being plundered.”
A spokesperson for the British receiver of shipwrecks told the BBC on Tuesday that police had posted officers to prevent any further plundering.
Agence France-Presse reported that after the Bokdals’ story was reported by the media, a beachcomber alerted authorities.
”The person that recovered them has delivered them so we can reunite her with her things,” said a spokesperson for Britain’s maritime and coastguard agency. – Sapa