The Casual Observer

Port Elizabeth of Yore: A Lighter Meets its End at Chelsea Point

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 20 March 2023 0 Comment

Prior to the opening of the first quay, the Charl Malan, in 1933, most freight was unloaded from a cargo ship in the roadstead onto a lighter which would transport the cargo to one of the jetties protruding into the Bay. As North Jetty was used predominantly to offload passengers from tugs & lighters, the jetties that were used to offload cargo were the South and the Dom Pedro Jetties. There the cargo was again manhandled being offloaded from the lighter onto the jetty from which it was loaded onto a train as the age of the truck had not yet arrived.

Main picture: Lighter aground at Chelsea Point

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Mount Pleasant & its First School

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 16 March 2023 0 Comment

With few exceptions, most whites at the turn of the 20^th century received a minimal education especially if they lived in outlying areas such as Draaifontein / De Stades area which both of my grandparents did. Most residents of Port Elizabeth assume that as both the Grey Institute and Collegiate Girls’ School had been operational for at least 25 years that most children would have attended them or alternatively that other schools of similar ability were readily available.

I would hate to disabuse you but taking the McCleland family as an exemplar, that idyll is far from reality. This is the story of one family, one school and one village.

Main picture: The Mount Pleasant Primary School in 1904

A SMAC in the Face #51: The DNA of the ANC

By Blaine McCleland in Jokes 7 March 2023 0 Comment

Inside every living cell is the key to life, the template. This is the DNA and it defines all the characteristics of the organism in which it is embedded. It is surprisingly simple in concept. It consists of two helical antiparallel strands, each of which have a sequence of bases namely T, A, C and G. The two helices are intertwined and crosslinked but only T can link to A and C can link to G. This unique structure can be unzipped and replicated to form two new DNA molecules and, in that way, the complete organism is built up.

The Saga of the Generator

By Dean McCleland in Other Miscellaneous Topics 1 March 2023 0 Comment

Having been told by an employee at Coastal Hire that I had won a generator for hiring a submersible pump to remove the flood waters from my property, I was naturally elated. Finding the persistent load-shedding debilitating when one depends upon constant power, I had resolved to purchase a fairly sizable one to overcome this annoyance factor. As the generator would of sizable proportions being an 8 kVA, I arranged with the builder who was on site repairing all my flood damage to provide me with a quote for a generator room.

I was the most fortunate person alive as I was receiving an expensive present. Not only was it exactly what I wanted but it would save me at least R26,000.

Port Elizabeth of Today: The Future of No. 7 Castle Hill

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 28 February 2023 0 Comment

Perhaps I should have titled this blog “Quo Vadis” or maybe something more apocalyptic such as the End of No. 7. Whatever it should be will never encompass my dread more for its future. When I left PE on 11^th February 1980 to seek my fame & (mis) fortune in the City of Gold, the future of No. 7 was sanguine. For the most part, its future now, like many other historical buildings, is precarious at best.

Why do I anticipate such a gloomy future?

Main picture: Painting of Port Elizabeth by W.A. Harriers showing No 7 Castle Hill at the crescent [or is that the brow] of the hill

Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Congregational Church in Pearson Street

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 27 February 2023 0 Comment

Before the end of the 19^thcentury, the central areas of Port Elizabeth could proudly boast of at least a dozen churches with certain denominations having multiple churches. The Anglicans are a case in point represented by three separate churches being St. Mary’s, the Holy Trinity and St. Paul’s. This is probably indicative of not only the head count of Anglicans but also the need for a church to be in close proximity to their residences due to the lack of transport.

This blog is largely based upon the excellent book by A.D. Herholdt entitled Eight Beautiful Gothic Revival Churches of Port Elizabeth.

Main picture: The Pearson Street Congregational Church

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Dunning’s Memoirs of Bagshaw Gibaud

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 27 February 2023 0 Comment

Prior to Bagshaw Gibaud’s closure at the rapacious hands of asset strippers in 1973, it was a prominent producer of shoes in South Africa. Like most of the foremost companies commencing operations in the 1800s, at the helm were visionaries and entrepreneurial men. The duo of Gibaud and Bagshaw were no exception.

Main picture: Original buildings of Bagshaw & Gibaud

A SMAC in the Face #50: Mr Fix Fokol

By Blaine McCleland in Jokes 27 February 2023 0 Comment

The ANC is riven with fools but if there’s a court jester then that title belongs to Fickle Mbalula. Ten days after the Russians invaded a sovereign Ukraine, Fickle tweeted to his groupies that he had just landed in the Ukraine. Pray tell, what macabre joke was that coming from a supposedly responsible cabinet minister? Well I suppose it’s only to be expected from a manchild who styled himself as Mr Razzamatazz in a previous incarnation. A more recent persona which he adopted was Mr Fear Fokol* when he was made Minister of Police. This is from the manchild who had such a hard on for Beyonce that he kept on wanting to invite her to perform at the annual sporting awards at eye-watering cost. His most recent falter ego is Mr Fixit which he anointed himself with when he was appointed Minister of Transport.

Port Elizabeth of Yore: Rutger Metelerkamp & Papenkuilsfontein

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 25 February 2023 0 Comment

As daunting as the challenge was, Rutger Metelerkamp rose to meet it by acquiring the farm previously owned by Thomas Ignatius Ferreira known as Papenkuilsfontein. Part of this danger stemmed from restive Khoikhoi and Xhosa tribesmen but also due to the utter isolation from civilisation. Taken all together, Rutger Metelerkamp [1780-1849] must have risen to the challenge. He also foresaw the potential of Klaaskraal, a former Khoikhoi “village” on the property later to be known as Bushy Park owned by the well-known local family of Lovemores.

It was intrepid entrepreneurs such as Rutger who would become the backbone and mainstay of economic development in this land. For that we should salute such men. Yet history now casts many pejoratively as colonisers and worse.

Main picture: Painting of Cradock Place by Thomas Baines

Jan Hoets: Connected to both Chase and Korsten

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 22 February 2023 0 Comment

While Jan Hoets might not strictly have been a full-time resident of Port Elizabeth, he was closely connected to two residents who were intimately involved in business in Port Elizabeth and who were largely responsible for Port Elizabeth’s initial growth: These prominent citizens were John Centlivres Chase and Frederick Korsten with the latter person being Hoets’ son-in-law. This arose due to his marriage to Korsten’s eldest daughter, Maria Johanna Charlotta. Of course by marrying a Chase meant that Hoets was also related to the Chases.

By all accounts Hoets was a successful merchant in Cape Town with its more lanquid less frenetic lifestyle. Here the bureaucrat predominated unlike Port Elizabeth which possessed a more energetic business like mien, the very anthesis of Cape Town.

Main picture: Jan Marthinus Hoets, grandson of Jan Hoets, and his wife Arabella Helen Centlivres Chase