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

Continue reading