Wolraad Woltemade, South African folk hero (born 1708)

Wolraad Woltemade

Cape Dutch dairy farmer; famous for saving lives in a shipwreck in 1773

Wolraad Woltemade 1708 – 1 June 1773 was a Cape Dutch dairy farmer, who died while rescuing sailors from the wreck of the ship De Jonge Thomas in Table Bay on 1 June 1773. The story was reported by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg who was in South Africa as a surgeon…