SS Mendi SS Mendi was a steamship of the Elder Dempster Line , chartered by the British government as a troopship , which sank off the Isle of Wight in 1917 with the loss of 646 lives . The " Mendi " sinking is considered one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the South African military , and was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century in British waters . Sinking . On 21 February 1917 , during World War I , the " Mendi " was transporting 823 members of the 5th Battalion , South African Native Labour Corps to France . She had sailed from Cape Town via Lagos , where a gun was fitted to her stern , to Plymouth , before proceeding towards Le Havre . At 5am , while under escort of the destroyer HMS " Brisk " , she was struck and cut almost in half by the SS " Darro " ( 11 , 000 BRT ) , an empty meat ship that was bound for Argentina . 616 South Africans ( 607 of them black troops ) plus 30 British crew members died in the disaster . The men on the ship of the South African Labour Corps came from a wide range of social backgrounds , and from a number of South African peoples , but the majority were from the rural areas of the Pondo Kingdom in the Eastern Cape , South Africa . Most of them had never seen the sea before this voyage . Very few of them could swim . The White South Africans were officers and NCOs . Some men were killed outright in the collision , and some were trapped below decks . Many however gathered on the listing deck of the " Mendi " . Oral history records that the men met their fate with great dignity . Their chaplain , Reverend Isaac Dyobha , is reported to have calmed the panicked men by raising his arms aloft and crying out in a loud voice : " Be quiet and calm , my countrymen . What is happening now is what you came to do . . . you are going to die , but that is what you came to do . Brothers , we are drilling the death drill . I , a Xhosa , say you are my brothers . . . Swazi s , Pondo s , Basotho . . . so let us die like brothers . We are the sons of Africa . Raise your war - cries , brothers , for though they made us leave our " assegai s " in the kraal , our voices are left with our bodies . " Notably , the crew of the " Darro " made no attempt to rescue survivors . Lifeboats from HMS " Brisk " rowed among the survivors , trying to rescue them . The investigation into the accident found the captain of the " Darro " , Henry W Stump , to be at fault for " having travelled at a dangerously high speed in thick fog , and of having failed to ensure that his ship emitted the necessary fog sound signals . " As a result , the captain of the " Darro " had his licence suspended for a year . His failure to render assistance to the " Mendi ' s " survivors has been the source of much controversy . Some historians have suggested that racial prejudice influenced his conduct , while others hold that he merely lost his nerve . The incident remains a somewhat forgotten aspect of World War I , both in terms of the loss of life and in relation to the role of African labourers in the war . Wreck site . The wreck was located from Saint Catherine ' s Light in 1945 , but was not positively identified until 1974 . The ship is sitting upright on the ocean floor , but has started to break up , exposing her boilers . In 2006 , the Commonwealth War Graves Commission launched an education resource called " Let us die like brothers " to highlight the role played by black South Africans during World War I . Although they were treated as inferior while alive , in death they are afforded the same level of commemoration as all other Commonwealth war dead . In December 2006 , English Heritage commissioned Wessex Archaeology to undertake an initial desk - based appraisal of the wreck . The project will identify a range of areas for potential future research and serve as the basis for a possible non - intrusive survey of the wreck itself in the near future . Memorials . This event is commemorated by a number of memorials in South Africa , Britain , France and Holland , as well as in the names of two South African Navy ships : Memorials , ceremonies and other ways , such as artworks , in which the loss of men of the " SS Mendi " has been commemorated include :