A different view on current affairs & history
Blogs on Port Elizabeth
This description of Port Elizabeth is an extract from a publication entitled Cape Colony: its History, Commerce, Industries and Resources published in 1910.
Main picture: The Customs House at the entrance to the harbour with its tower
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Prior to the 1940s, holidays at the coast for those of modest means would automatically imply a camping holiday. It was the rare exception that a family’s coastal holiday would be in an hotel of which there was a dearth. By today’s standard’s the majority of these hotels would not even be rated as today’s One Star accommodation.
For the average family, it was either a canvas sail over one’s head or nothing at all.
Main picture: Camping at Humewood in 1910
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In South Africa and especially within Port Elizabeth, the picture of Grey High School is evocative of high academic standards and sporting prowess. The dream of every parent in Port Eliabeth is that their child would step inside the portals of this iconic school. All except one. The parents of my brother, Blaine, who was awarded a bursary to Grey due to his academic achievements at Hubert Hurd Primary School, but my parents rejected the offer. So, he never graced the portals of the school.
Main picture: Grey High School
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In the 25 years since the arrival of the 1820 Settlers, Grahamstown had been larger than Port Elizabeth. To many, especially those in Grahamstown, this seemed to be preordained. Many relished the idea of a harbour on the Kowie River as this would undermine Port Elizabeth’s only supposed advantage in the development stakes.
By 1850 Port Elizabeth was clearly in the ascendancy with vibrant growth and its enterprising mein. From now on, Port Elizabeth would be Grahamstown’s bete noir.
Main picture: Market Square
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Port Elizabeth’s dams in order of date constructed
Main picture: Churchill Dam (now called the Kromme Dam although nobody really uses that name) is fed by the Kromme River. Commissioned in 1943
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Over the past two centuries since the construction of No. 7 Castle Hill, only three people owned it before it was declared a National Monument. It was James Daly who purchased the No. 7 from the daughters of the Rev. Francis McCleland in 1904 and was culpable for the near destruction of this cottage. As the spectre of demolition loomed but prior to the damning verdict being announced, the municipal surveyor Harold Smith purchased it in order to restore it.
In this noble selfless quest Smith was ultimately successful. Having already covered the lives of McCleland and Smith, this blog will reveal the life of Daly and his family.
Main picture: Portion of Harries ‘Southern View of Port Elizabeth’ showing No 7 Castle Hill
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On the second anniversary of the establishment of the Port Elizabeth public library, the Rev. Francis McCleland was requested to deliver the main address at the Commercial Hall on the 4th July 1851. The title of his talk was The Progress and Advantages of Literature. At a later stage, somebody deemed it necessary to release this 30-page address in booklet form. In the hope – perhaps forlorn – that it would provide an insight into the character of my great great grandfather or the milieu of that era, I obtained a copy of this book.
Main picture: Cover of the book
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As jetties were constructed, they acquired a name: North, South and Dom Pedro. How the name was determined is unknown. It is unlikely that a Jetty Naming Competition was instituted with prizes for the most popular name. Rather it was more likely that it was common parlance that determined it. In the case of the Dom Pedro, it was the name of the slaving shipwrecked at that spot which “selected” the name.
But how were the quay names determined? With the first quay having been named Charl Malan, what would quay number 2 be called?
Main picture: Item N46246 – Port Elizabeth, 1939. No 2 quay at Port Elizabeth harbour. [Transnet Heritage Library]
The transition from sailing ships to steamers and mail ships was a gradual process. The great storm of 1902 which resulted in the destruction of 21 sailing ships and 60 souls was the last hurrah of these magnificent vessels. Port Elizabeth also lagged in the construction of quays and a breakwater which only came into operation in the early 1930s.
These are the verbatim notes of C.G.H. Skead written in 1939.
Main picture: Customs House as completed in 1891
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A Port is defined as a town or a city with a harbour making Sir Rufane Donkin’s christening of the hamlet on the sweeping littoral in Algoa Bay as a Port presumptuous as it would be 50 years before the first stage of North Jetty would be constructed in the 1870s. In a country of modest means conflated with political considerations, Port Elizabeth would have to wait another 60 years until a fully-fledged harbour was built in the 1930s.
Nonetheless, the residents were extremely proud of their jetties with their outmoded modus operandi. So as not to be mired in resentment and anger, instead they transformed this old technology into an efficient methodology with which they were justifiably proud.
Main picture: Surfboats landing on the landing beach
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