The motor launch Joe was carrying ten fishermen when on the night of the 22nd May 1906 it failed to return to port. Anxious families spent a fearful night hoping beyond hope that their loved ones would return unharmed. As days passed into weeks, then months and finally years, would these grief-stricken families ever receive closure, or would this remain an open wound never quite healing.
What had happened to this vessel and its ten occupants?
Main picture: Messina Bros tug Talana, skippered by Spero Messina, recovered pieces of the wrecked launch, The Joe, in Algoa Bay 15 months after it went missing in May 1906
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