Port Elizabeth of Yore: Frederick Korsten-Sealing their Fate

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Within several years of the first permit for the slaughter of seals in Algoa Bay being issued, the seal population on St Croix island was exterminated. Steadily the seals on adjacent islands followed their fate until it was only the seals resident on Black Rocks near Bird Island which remained. This colony would be the only one to survive and even today it is the only island or outcrop populated with a colony of seals.

This is the story of the slaughter of the Algoa Bay seal population until it collapsed, except on Black Rock, never to regenerate. The only plausible explanation for this is that the waters around the Black Rock outcrop were too treacherous for the seal hunters to ply their trade there. In fact, the seas are so treacherous that many seals die in their endeavours to reach their patch of rock.

Main picture:  Islands and outcrops on which seals used to reside

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: St Croix as an Isolation “Hospital”

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

In his book, East to the Isles, Colin Urquhart, details the history of the islands in Algoa Bay. Amongst the numerous stories of death, destruction, progress, and growth, Urquhart narrates the saga of the Canadian brig, RLT of 444 tons en route from Mauritius to Europe. This event commenced on the 23rd of December 1891 when the RLT’s master, Captain W Thompson, informed the Harbour Master, Captain Young that he suspected that 10 passengers and crew were infected with smallpox.

To say that the town erupted in consternation would be an understatement.

Main picture:   St. Croix Island seen from the nearest landfall at Hougham Park, just east of the Coega harbour development.

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Islands in the Bay

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Algoa Bay contains six named islands in two groups of three. These islands are of considerable importance as they are the only islands along a 1,777 km stretch of coastline between Cape Agulhas and Inhaca Island in Mozambique. The combined surface area of these islands is said to be 40 ha i.e. 99 acres. 

Close inshore, near the new Ngquru harbour development at Coega, on the north-eastern outskirts of Port Elizabeth, is the St Croix group, consisting of a main island of that name and two lesser islets, Jahleel Island just off the Ngquru breakwater and Brenton Island on the seaward side. The second group consists of Bird, Seal and Stag Islands. All six islands and their adjacent waters are declared nature reserves and form part of the Addo Elephant National Park. The islands are closed to the public.

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