The CSS Shenandoah was put up for auction and purchased by the Sultan of Omar and Zanzibar and renamed Majidi. Following repairs she went to Zanzibar and was home ported at Stone Harbour. and was originally used as the Sultan's personal yacht for a number of years sailing between ports in Zanzibar and Oman. Eventually she also began carrying coal, clover and gum as a merchant ship.
In early April 1972, while at anchor in Stone Harbour, a tremendous storm struck the coast of Zanzibar. More than a hundred ships were blown ashore and the Majidi was one of them. The ship was refloated, but had heavy damage to her hull and decking. Pumped dry, it was towed to Bombay by the British Salvage Company.
The ship returned to service in July 1872, she sailed with a German captain and native crew; but after departing Stone Harbour on her first voyage, she vanished. It was several weeks before the HMS Briton was reported to have recovered several survivors adrift from the ship in the Mozambique Channel. The captain of the Briton said some of the survivors accused the German captain of deliberately running the Majidi aground and was ordered to allow a German shipbuilding company to offer a replacement vessel.
The wreck of the former cruiser CSS Shenandoah is still out there, on a reef somewhere in the Mozambique Channel.
Maybe Mr. Ballard should start looking for it.
--Old B-Runner
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