Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Saga of the Le Necessaire

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

By the mid-eighteenth century, South Africa still only possessed one port – Cape Town. This did not imply that sailing vessels did not occasionally anchor offshore and send a small boat ashore either to collect water and other victuals or more ominously to mount surveillance operations. So it was in the case of a French sloop, Le Necessaire, in 1752 off Humewood.

In doing so, a calamity would befall a tiny French boat leading to the exposure of ulterior French intentions.

Main picture: A French Sloop

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: The little-known Folley’s Bridge across the Baakens River

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Bridges featured prolifically in Port Elizabeth’s storied history. In the early days the town was bifurcated into Town and South End by the pesky Baakens River with its the rude predilection for periodically wash away the bridges leaving the South Enders trapped on the south side of the river until the water subsided. Local ingenuity would emerge and entrepreneurs would provide alternative means of crossing usually by means of a makeshift raft.

Main picture: Folley’s Bridge  

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