What was just a Saturday afternoon stroll along the beach led to an eight-year-old girl making a historical discovery at the weekend near Cosy Corner in the Kidd’s Beach area.

Jaunniel Moss noticed part of a car’s engine sticking out from sand previously covered by dunes.

The vintage chassis, engine and two tyres had been unearthed by the monstrous waves and gale force winds the coastline experienced last week.

Her mother, Jaunique Moss – who has been visiting the area for many years – said the beach was famously known for a shipwreck that took place more than 60 years ago.

“My daughter spotted the top of the engine when she was out on a walk with my dad and was very excited about it when they came back.

“We decided to go out there on Sunday morning and dig up the car to see what it is and realised it must have been from the shipwreck,” she said.

On September 27, 1957 the Frontier ship was lodged onto the coastline and remains of the wreckage can still be seen strewn along the beach.

Rodrique Ross, one of Cosy Corner’s first inhabitants echoed the findings and told the Daily Dispatch yesterday that when the Frontier “docked” at their beach he was called to help out.

“I was about 26 years old at the time and we got called down to the beach.

“When we got there we found lots of empty liquor bottles that washed up from the wreckage.”

Ross did not see the unearthed car himself but recalled that the vehicle’s engine was connected to a cable which was used as pulley to transport the cargo onto land.

“The guy who had the salvage rights used to pull the busman’s chair from the ship to land but he left the car and the bulldozer there because he could not transport it across the Ncerha River,” he said.

Ross said he often charged a levy for those who used his farm as a throughway to view the ship.

“There were thousands of cars that came through here. I even put up toilets close to the beach for people to use,” he said. — oriellya@tisoblackstar.co.za