Port Elizabeth of Yore: Electrical Misadventures and Short-Circuits

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Growth in electricity demand in Port Elizabeth surged by greater than double digits for most of the first fifty years of supply. This was primarily as a consequence of vigorous industrial expansion. Once the Mount Road Power Station was unable to meet the power demands of the rapidly growing town, the Swartkops Power Station was constructed in the early 1950s. Both plants had an exemplary service record in being able to meet demand 24/7/365. Apart from some minor incidents and two major incidents of which I am aware of, and excluding the recent load shedding, the whole system has only been down twice for an extended period. 

This blog details these two major incidents and what the implication of a system crash is.

Main picture: Eskom transmission lines

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: A Futile Foray into Gas

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 2 Comments

By now, the winning technology is well known. Even though gas for lighting and many other uses was introduced a half century prior to its competitor, electricity’s versatility ensured that it would be the ultimate winner in the lighting stakes. Gas would never completely disappear as it filled certain niche markets. Even in those countries in which natural gas is abundant, it is still chiefly used to generate electricity.

Main picture: The North End Gas Works as it was in the 1900s.

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Commercial Developments of the Richardson Family

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Maybe not quite as prominent as the Mosenthal family in 19th century Port Elizabeth, but the Richardson’s were a close second. Similarities abound between the two families; both were Jewish immigrants who operated in the agricultural sector and both introduced innovations into their market segment and operated locally and internationally. Even their headquarters were contiguous to one another in Market Square. Mosenthals occupied the corner premises of Jetty and North Union Street whereas Richardson’s building was next door in North Union Street. 

At the risk of overstatement, these two Port Elizabeth entrepreneurs were in the top tier of those companies which were largely instrumental in Port Elizabeth’s rise as an economic force in the 19th and early 20th century.

Let me introduce the Richardson’s and some of their businesses.

Main picture: Richardson’s head office in Market Square

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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: Richardson’s Wool Washery & Carbonising Works

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

When I first saw the photograph with this prominent sign on the building in North End, presumably Queen Street, advertising “Richardson’s Wool Washery and Carbonising Works”, I was perplexed. How does the process of carbonising operate and why is it performed?

I sent my ever-willing technical editor scurrying off to answer another inane question and this is the result.

Main picture: Richardson’s works

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Harbour Day on Saturday 28th October 1933

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

After badgering the authorities since the mid-1850s, finally a dream would come true for Port Elizabeth, the quintessential triumph of the human spirit over adversity. An enclosed harbour would finally be constructed instead of cargo being transshipped in fragile surfboats to and from ships in the roadstead. Churning wind-swept seas prevented transfer of cargo for days at a time and in the windy October month, weeks could be lost. Despite the primitive nature of this method, Port Elizabeth held records as the most productive roadstead “port” in the world. Like the hansom cab being supplanted by the car, so the roadstead would be replaced by quays, breakwater and the accoutrements of quayside loading and unloading.

To celebrate this transition, a festival entitled Harbour Day was organised for Saturday 28th October 1933.

Main picture: Ceremony on the opening of the Charl Malan Quay. The H.M.S. Dorsetshire was the first vessel to dock at this quay

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Quarries for Development

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Large quantities of rock and stone are only required for extensive civil engineering projects. The first project to require such quantities was the construction of the abortive breakwater in the 1860s. Even greater quantities were required for the new breakwater and quays in the 1920s and 1930s.

With the second and third wave of buildings on the southern side of Main Street, copious quantities of rock were generated. As this construction did not coincide with harbour construction and an alternative use could not be found for this material, it was merely dumped into the Baakens Lagoon, converting the lagoon into a narrow canalised stream.

Main picture: Thomas Bowler’s painting the railway line ferrying stone from the quarry in St. Mary’s cemetery to the breakwater being constructed south of the Baakens River. Interestingly, the painting shows the rail link running through the graveyard.

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Port Elizabeth no More: Sobriquet versus official name

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 5 Comments

How will the fact that Port Elizabeth has undergone a name change affect the commonly utilised name of the town? People commonly adopt their own names or sobriquets for things irrespective of what the official name of the thing is.

Will Gqeberha suffer the same fate?

Main picture: 1810 map of the Baakens Valley before the lagoon was filled in with stone from building sites in Main Street. Note also the paucity of dwellings. Note that the town is specified as Algoa Bay

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Customs Houses – A Visible Expression of Growth and Decline

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

In the era prior to the introduction of income tax, the major source of revenue for the fledgling town and colony, apart from the levying of tolls, was derived from the collection of customs duties which were levied on all incoming sea freight.

Probably in an effort to thwart corruption, but also to reflect their status, customs officials eventually earned the highest emoluments of all civil servants during the early colonial era.

Main picture: Customs House at the entrance to the harbour still resplendent with its huge tower circa 1895

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: First proposed slipway

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Whatever else could be said about the British Settlers, one could not denigrate them for lack of initiative, determination and drive. By nature John Centlivres Chase, an original 1820 Settler, was an entrepreneur who explored all opportunities of advancement. On a recent trip to Cape Town, he had paid a visit to the recently completed Simon’s Town patent slipway. Being impressed by it, he had taken the opportunity in 1860 to approach the marine engineer involved, Robert Mair, with a view to replicating this slipway in Port Elizabeth.  

Main picture: The original short-lived breakwater

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