An enterprising local resident, John Owen Smith, entered into various disparate business ventures. Several of them such as mining copper in Namaqualand or recovering guano on Bird Island, required a seagoing vessel. This is what set in motion the necessity to build one locally. The unlikely location selected was a non-descript lake at the western end of Kragga Kamma road known as Lake Farm.
Main picture: Lake Farm in 1944
The only plausible explanations for this extraordinary location must have been the availability of suitable wood used in its construction. Only yellowwood would fit the bill but its forests have long since been decimated and no longer existed. It was here that D.S. Dawson constructed the Shrimp, a clipper schooner with a tonnage of 45 tons and a cargo carrying capacity of 60 tons. Nowhere is it clarified whether the vessel was constructed on the lake itself or on the adjacent land but it is assumed that it was constructed in sections on the land.
The hull of the schooner was built on the north side of the Landman Lake. In his memoirs, William James Reid recalls how he and some friends frequently rode out to see how she was progressing. Timber for shipbuilding was cut out of the locally available trees. In this process trees were categorised into wood suitable for use as a plank being a straight trunk whereas those required for curved surfaces such as a rib would be hand-picked from a tree with that particular curvature. The straight wood would then be sawed into planks in a saw pit. The operation required that the tree trunk be placed over a saw pit where a saw blade with handles at both ends was used by a two-man team to slice the trunk into straight planks.
On completion, the hull was dismantled and transported to Port Elizabeth by means of wagons. Then it was placed on rollers close to the spot where the 1820 Settlers landed, and there it was reassembled.
On the 14th February 1854, the clipper schooner was launched [Per the GTJ it was the 15th]. According to Harradine, the Shrimp made a several trips to Bird Island and to Mossel Bay before leaving on 18 April for Alexander Bay with a cargo. She left Table Bay on the 6th May and was not heard from again.
John Owen Smith’s example at shipbuilding was not met with enthusiasm and was never followed.
What happened to another proposal?
The Eastern Province Herald dated 13th January 1860 makes the following statement: “A small screw steamer built and launched in Port Elizabeth is undergoing sea trails. Another bigger pleasure craft will be constructed by some builder in a few months.
Apparently neither ever occured as nowhere is it recorded.
Addendum
Apparently, Lake Farm was called Landman Lake for a period as a Voortrekker leader, Abraham Landman owned land there.
Sources
Port Elizabeth: A Social Chronicle to the end of 1945 by Margaret Harradine (1996, E H Walton (Packaging (Pty) Ltd, Port Elizabeth, on behalf of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth).
Eastern Province Herald in 1845 – 21st February, 21st May & 29 November. 26 June 1855 and 15 November 1861