During the 1830s, a number of instances of fake distress calls being made were reported. These incidents raised the heckles of boating companies which responded to these emergencies by charging exorbitant “rescue fees” in those cases.
Main pictures; Ships at the roadstead during a gloomy day
Hoax shots
In a letter to the Graham’s Town Journal dated the 1st of May 1834 from “Humanities, PE”, on the 22nd April, the letter writer noted that on the 18th April at approximately 8 pm, several distress shots were heard. Gun shots were returned from the Fort. The Harbour Master Wallace and J.O. Smith, an agent of Lloyds, as well as Bill Plankett immediately raised boat crews and dashed through the surf to the distressed ship. According to the GTJ, “Mr. W.M. Harries had tar barrels burning on the hill at Donkin’s Folly.” It is presumed that Harries was referring to the monument in the form of a pyramid to the late wife of the deputy governor, Sir Rufane Donkin. Probably certain townsfolk took umbrage to the fact that the memorial was constructed during a period when the focus of the population was on survival and not frivolities and ornamentations. In his letter, Humanities accused the master of schooner Courier, James Palmer, of firing 18-20 shots as a hoax.
In another letter to the editor dated 30th April 1834 in the same issue of the Graham’s Town Journal, “WC” states that Palmer rounded Cape Receife after dark and the hazy night at times made it appear that the ship was surrounded by a “beach”. In his confusion, he decided to fire the guns to get a reply from the shore. WC admitted that he probably did fire too many rounds thereby creating the impression that the vessel was actually in distress.
Palmer offered the first boat for about £3 15s for their efforts but one of the other rescue boats demanded £50 which was deemed to be excessive. Even though the reason why such an excessive amount was charged, is not stated in the letter, in it was presumably to serve as a deterrent to other vessels frivolously requesting to be “rescued”.
Price of Lloyds insurance
Furthermore, he noted that some years ago, Port Elizabeth was considered hazardous and Lloyds insurance premiums were high even as recently as 2 to 3 years ago when £5 5s per Certificate was charged, but recently the rates had declined and were only costing 50s. WC noted that the loss of ships due to higher tariffs could retard Port Elizabeth’s development but that it was better to be safe than sorry. Lastly, he noted that Palmer had been trading in Port Elizabeth for 8 years.
Justification
Five weeks later in the Graham’s Town Journal dated 5th June 1834, the anonymous correspondent noted that Bill Plankett had indeed charged £50 on the previous occasion . However the first crew of seven (sic) had been charged 10s each but the weather was calm at the time. This implies that the letter writer concurred with the rate for the rescues charged by Bill Plackett.
Sources
Graham’s Town Journal dated 1st May 1834
Graham’s Town Journal dated 6th June 1834