Schoenmakerskop of Yore: Is it Misplaced Nostalgia?

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

As my father was raised in Schoenmakerskop, the family was compelled to swim there every weekend. Not for us the pleasures of swimming at Pollock Beach, Willows or, heaven forbid, Humewood. It was Schoenies yet again. As he knew the area intimately and it resonated with him, especially the old days, he would not waver in our destination except on the rare occasion. Deviating was a forlorn hope. Not once did we swim at Humewood. It never cracked a nod.

A taciturn man, he seldom spoke but on the odd occasion he would make a remark about what Schoenmakerskop used to be like. To him it was nirvana. But what did paradise offer the family when in 1913, and my dad was 2 years old, offer them that was so much peace and serenity?

Being compelled to discover the history of Schoenmakerskop for a blog some time ago, this question raised a bemused head. How would I classify existence in the early two decades of the village’s existence?

Main picture: Schoenmakerskop in 1907

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: How not to build a Breakwater

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

Was it a Comedy of Errors or Merely a Dose of Reality?

With the rapid growth in exports from Port Elizabeth, incessant demands arose to build a proper harbour in the form of jetties and a breakwater. The initial attempt at harbour building was the construction of a jetty using the wreck of the vessel Feegee as its base. Its usefulness was short-lived as a sudden gale drove several vessels through it, irreparably damaging it.

Various configurations of a breakwater were later proposed and the design that was adopted was constructed just south of the Baakens River. This was the start of a town’s nightmare as first the sea and then a flood were to silt the harbour up, posing a threat to the operation of the landing beaches. Instead of a crowning achievement, this episode resulted in not only the necessity of dismantling the breakwater but even more disconcerting, it caused the postponement of the construction of the breakwater and quays by 60 years.

If successful, it would have been a transformative change for a town in no small measure defined by its primitive method of discharging cargo onto flimsy lighters out on the roadstead.

Main picture: The breakwater south of the Baakens River – a fatal design flaw

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