South Africa’s declaration of war against Nazi Germany on the 6th September 1939 would have a profound impact on South Africa. Among the vortex of events would be the establishment of a Royal Navy training base at Seaview being the only Royal Navy training base outside the United Kingdom.

Main picture: The interesting thing about this picture is that it is pre-1934. They started construction on the hotel in 1934 from the right of the hotel as you looked at it with the ocean behind you. The giant Norfolk pines are not yet even visible, the two structures that are visible are on what would become hotel land.

Prior history
The farm on which Seaview was developed was originally granted to Daniel Willem Kuun pre 1783 but its original name cannot be traced. Later Kuun relocated to Gedulds Rivier. According to the Graham’s Town Journal dated 20th December 1899, the Seaview farm of 1196 morgen is advertised for sale. In 1821 the farm was granted to William Gardner.

Apart from the Mosenthal’s, another dynastic entrepreneurial family based in Port Elizabeth, was the Richardson’s. The patriarch, Sir Lewis Richardson, was invloved with the wool, mohair, ostrich feather and orange trade. In 1931 his sons, Samuel and Montifiore espied a new shiny object, entertainment. A new form of entertainment was bursting into life, bioscopes, later to be renamed cinemas. The first cinema built by the brothers was in 1931. Subsequently a second cinema, known as the Astra, was built. This building was destroyed by fire in 1947, but it was rapidly re-opened in 1948 on the ground floor of a multi-storeyed office bock constructed on the same site.

The brothers now cast their eyes further afield after presumably enlarging the definition of entertainment. For this they would have to acquire property on which to develop a coastal resort. When they cast around, their eyes alighted upon Schoenmakerskop. With the main pool being opposite the flourishing tearoom owned by Mrs. Daisy McCleland, now called the Sacramento, they made the widow an offer that she could not refuse. But she did. Without a hesitant pause of indecision, she declined their offer. When they applied a threat to purchase a property at Seaview and force her out of business by competing with her, she stood her ground. Having built the tearoom, raised six children without a husband who had died as a consequence of contracting black water disease in German East Africa during WW1, she would not let the Richardsons bully her. She was made of sterner stuff.

Clarendon Marine Township
The brothers would now have to acquire a site further up the coast at Seaview. Most potential property developers viewed the coast at Seaview as drab and unexciting. With no natural tidal pools and a rocky shore precluding access to the sea, stunted bushes and sparse vegetation, property developers gave the area a wide berth; all that is except one. Under the banner of Richardson Investments (Pty) Ltd, they acquired Seaview under a development known as Clarendon Marine Township.  

Despite the purchase being expedited, only the swimming pool in Art Deco style was built in 1931. It would only be seven years later in 1938 when the Seaview Hotel was completed. In 1939 the Golf Course was added to the existing bowling greens and tennis courts. With the declaration of war later in that year, the viability of the development must have been in question. Surprisingly it would be war that would save the hotel.

Interestingly, the hotel was positioned so far from the sea as the N2 freeway was scheduled to be constructed in front of the hotel but with the outbreak of war and the chance of attack from the ocean, the freeway was moved inland as it was viewed as a major supply route.

Royal Navy training base
South Africa declared war on Hitler’s Germany on 6^th September 1939. In March 1942, staff of HMS King Alfred, a Royal Navy training establishment on the south coast of England, started searching for a suitable site for a similar college to train temporary officers for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR or ‘Wavy Navy’) and the South African Naval Forces (SANF). They first looked at Alexandria in Egypt, but this was not suitable due to the North African campaign being in progress. Thence their attention turned to South Africa, where they checked all possible locations from East London to Cape Town.

On 1^st August 1942 they opted for the Seaview Hotel, which was close to the harbour of Port Elizabeth, and “moored with all possible anchors down…” The first intake was received two weeks later. The choice was logical as it was quicker, safer and more convenient to take ratings from the Eastern Fleet here, as well as Union applicants, rather than transport them to England. U-boats were very active in the South Atlantic at that stage and three weeks or more of voyaging was saved.

It is the custom in the Royal Navy to give all land establishments ship’s names. Many names were considered and finally Good Hope was suggested by the British Admiralty and approved by Field Marshall Jan Smuts. It was named after a four-funnelled Armoured Cruiser of 14 000 tons launched in 1901, a gift from the city of Cape Town to the Royal Navy. She visited Port Elizabeth some years later as Flagship of the 1^st Cruiser Squadron. Placed in the Reserve Fleet in 1914, she was re-commissioned later that year with reservists under Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock and proceeded to the South Atlantic. Joined there by HM Ships Monmouth, Glasgow and Otranto, she was ordered to search for the German China Squadron under Admiral Graf von Spee in the Pacific.

This squadron comprised the heavy cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the three light cruisers SMS Dresden, Leipzig and Nürnberg. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were crack gunnery ships and were manned by crews who had been together for a year or more. On 1^st November 1914 the older and weaker British squadron engaged the enemy off Coronel on the Chilean coast. After an epic one-hour battle, Good Hope blew up and sank with all hands after receiving 35 direct hits from 8” guns. Our Good Hope at Seaview was reported sunk several times by German radio as Admiral Doenitz did not realize she was a shore station!

Before being posted to Seaview, ratings received basic training at HMS Assegaai in Pietermaritzburg and did a spell at sea. Candidates showing leadership qualities went before an Admiralty Selection Board and, if suitable, were sent to Good Hope. Approximately 1 000 Cadet-Ratings (C/Rs) qualified as officers over the two-year life of the ‘ship’. About 70% were from Britain, 25% from South Africa and remainder from New Zealand, Australia, Rhodesia and Newfoundland. The South African ratings were partly those seconded to the Royal Navy and partly those earmarked for the SANF (South African Naval Force) and trained by the Royal Navy for the Union Government. The latter were no longer trained at Good Hope from 1943 onwards,when courses for SANF midshipmen were started at SANF Naval Training Base, HMSAS Unitie, in Cape Town. C/Rs wore caps with a white band, dined in the officers’ mess and were expected to behave as officers. Training courses lasted 12 – 14 weeks and C/Rs were allotted to various Divisions named after famous British admirals – Anson, Howe, Rodney, Grenville and Nelson – with an extra Accountants’ Division named Scott. The standard of training was equal to that at King Alfred.

A large Drill Shed was built on the approach road to the hotel and a 12-pdr gun together with an Oerlikon in an armoured turret were erected in the grounds for gun drill. The Tidal Pool was roped into service, davits being erected at the poolside for boat-drill training. A rigorous training schedule was implemented, followed by voluntary classes in all subjects until the generator was switched off at 22h30. C/Rs also undertook sea training on HMSAS Africana or other ships based in Port Elizabeth harbour. The course ended with a final examination. Cadets varied in age from 18 to 43 and had been educated at a variety of educational institutions in South Africa and overseas. Of the South African schools, Grey High School in Port Elizabeth was the most popular with 22 old boys, followed by Durban High School with 18. HMS Good Hope was finally closed in June 1944 on orders of the C-in-C, South Atlantic, as shipping could by then once more pass safely through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.

Addendums

Sources
http://samilitaryhistory.org/14/p14mayne.html
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the end of 1945 by Margaret Harradine (1996, E H Walton Packaging Pty Ltd, Port Elizabeth)
Seaview and the Royal Navy by Richard Tomlinson (2003, Historical Society of Port Elizabeth, Looking Back, Vol 42, pages 40 – 53, for the full text.)