John Clark Collection
This sketch shows the ex-slaver Mazeppa leaving the lagoon at Port Natal on the 10th of June 1842. The Boers had unloaded her of stores and ballast but, not being seamen, omitted to remove the rudder and sails. Aboard her were seven women, eighteen children, two ship's boys, and ten men- 37 people in all. The captain had been taken ashore by the Boers but Christopher Joseph Cato assumed command. Gradually, the people on board accumulated extra water and provisions. Periodically the sails were raised to dry out the canvas. Then one day with a south-west wind and an ebb tide the men slipped the cable of the single anchor and sailed off. The Boers riddled the upper works and sails with gunfire but the ship got outside the harbor with only the loss of the longboat towed behind. Cato made for Delagoa Bay but lost his remaining anchor and had to proceed further north where he contracted four American whalers and bought an anchor. He then returned to Delagoa Bay, got water and stores, and made it back to Port Natal where he found the frigate Southampton at anchor. His troubles were over.