Port Elizabeth of Yore: Was the Second Fortification Pointless?

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

During the first British occupation of the Cape, the puny settlement at Algoa Bay found itself threatened by raiding Xhosa and khoikhoi warriors. For defence, the British soldiers constructed an extemporised fortification known as Star Fort on the Ferreira River [today’s Papenkuils River]. This inexpensive fort dug in the shape of a star around Thomas Ferreira’s house, would act as the settlement’s first fortification.

With the imminent threat to the settlement, comprising mainly wattle and daub huts around the mouth of the Baakens River, a more substantial redoubt was required. To meet this exigency, shortly thereafter a blockhouse was constructed by the Royal Engineers at the drift across the Baakens Lagoon, now sadly no more. This would be Port Elizabeth’s second fortification but did it ever serve a useful purpose or was it ill-designed and located for the task at hand?

Main picture: 1803 Gesigt van Fort Frederick en Algoa Baai, Willem Bartolome Eduard Paravicini Di Cappelli, H103

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Thomas Ferreira – The First White Inhabitant

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 3 Comments

Historically the arrival of the 1820 Settlers obscures the fact that Algoa Bay, as the outpost was then called, had already been settled; by not many, however. In total there were no more than a dozen farms, but they covered the whole area from Cape Recife to the Gamtoos River and they were occupied by Dutch speaking Afrikaners. Amongst this hardy band of Trek Boers was Thomas Ignatius Ferreira. Of Portuguese extraction, his father is the progenitor of the vast Ferreira family in South Africa.

Ferreira settled in Algoa Bay 44 years prior to the arrival of the 1820 settlers and was banished from the area 17 years before the settlers arrival.

Main picture: 1803 Gesigt van Fort Frederick en Algoa Baai by Willem Bartolome Eduard Paravicini Di Cappelli

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Star Fort – An Accidental Military Fortification

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 2 Comments

Call it what you like, but this crude fort had the distinction of being not merely the first military fortification in Algoa Bay – as Port Elizabeth was then called – but also the only fort in Port Elizabeth to experience military action. What would the future hold for this extemporised military fortification? Certainly, it should have been recognised much more than the Johnny-come-lately, Fort Frederick, which was unbloodied in war. Star Fort did not survive long which is quite understandable given the fact that it was hastily constructed earth fort which was just as hastily abandoned.

Main picture:  There are no extant sketches of this fort other than this reference to Star Fort on the map of Cradock Place on which it is situated

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Cradock Place: A Barometer of Oscillating Fortunes

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 8 Comments

In its day Cradock Place ranked in beauty with the most beautiful of the old Dutch houses in the Western Cape. Senior officials and other dignitaries were treated to banquets and walks in the splendid gardens. Now it is a merely series of foundations, forgotten and unknown by the current generation. Of all the historical buildings that Port Elizabeth has unconscionably lost, this one perhaps rates as the most significant. On the threshold of the arrival of the 1820 Settlers, a Dutch immigrant by the name of Frederick Korsten, had made his mark prior to the establishment of Port Elizabeth. Perhaps for this reason alone, aside from any architectural merits of the buildings, these deserved to have been preserved for posterity. 

This blog comprises two sections. Firstly, it briefly mentions its initial founder, Thomas Ignatius Ferreira and then it sketches the journey undertaken by Korsten to arrive at Algoa Bay and what he did whilst in Port Elizabeth. In the second section, it provides an account by the final tenant of this property. He gives an insight into the treasures that were hidden therein. Finally, the real reason for its reprehensible destruction is revealed.

Main picture: Cradock Place

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Solitary Naval Engagement in Algoa Bay

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

Apart from one naval engagement between British and French warships in Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth has been spared the horrors and depredations of war. Compared with other naval engagements such as those in the Pacific Ocean during WW2, this one can justifiably be rated as minor. 

Having said that, during this Napoleonic era, with tensions between the dominant maritime nation, Great Britain, and the pretender to the “throne,” France, being white hot, any misstep in the southern oceans placed the British position on the Indian subcontinent in danger.

Main picture:  Fight between the ship of the line, Jupiter and the French frigate, Preneuse

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Fort Frederick-The Unbloodied Sentinel

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 7 Comments

It is fair to say that the establishment of Fort Frederick was more a response to political tensions in Europe than to local enmity between Dutch frontiersmen and Xhosa tribesmen. While the later upheavals arose as the vanguard of the Dutch boeren [Afrikaans boere] approached the advancing Xhosa tribesmen, the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 had plunged Europe into a protracted period of war. 

This blog traces the fascinating history of Fort Frederick from its inception until the present time. 

Main picture: Fort Frederick dated 12 March 1905

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