New ideas about old caves

New ideas about old caves

by | May 10, 2011 | 2011, Talks

Speaker:         Prof Judith Sealy

The many caves and open-air archaeological sites on the Robberg Peninsula have long been known to contain a wealth of archaeological material, some of it many hundreds of thousands of years old. Plett and surrounding areas were desirable places to live in those days, just as they are today, and for many of the same reasons – including mild weather year-round and good fishing!  The best-known cave is Nelson Bay Cave, excavated by archaeological teams in the 1960s and 1970s. It contains perhaps the most complete record of any site in South Africa of occupation over the past 22000 or so years, as well as older remains dating to before 60000 years ago.

 Nelson Bay Cave provides an excellent picture of life in the past, but questions remain. One important question is “Are the patterns seen at Nelson Bay Cave typical of other sites in the area, or are some of them idiosyncratic features of this particular cave?”

This can only be answered by investigating more caves. We do, of course, have a good deal of evidence from Matjes River Rock Shelter, at Keurboomstrand, but the excavations there were not well documented and we lack detailed information about what was found, and where. We also know, from the bone chemistry of human skeletons found at Matjes River and on the Robberg Peninsula, that between 4500 and 2000 years ago, different groups of people with different ways of life lived on either side of the Keurbooms/Bitou estuary. They were all hunter-gatherers, but the folk who lived at Robberg and Plettenberg Bay were specialized marine-oriented hunter-gatherers for whom fish, seals and seabirds were major food items. People who lived at Matjes River, on the other hand, ate much more mixed diets in which plant foods and the meat of terrestrial animals were more important. This is a relatively recent finding, published in the academic journal Current Anthropology in 2006.

In order to explore these issues further, a team from UCT undertook excavations in June/July 2007 and 2008 in the very large cave on the western side of Robberg, just beyond The Gap. Many locals know this cave as East Guanogat. Archaeologists often call it Hoffman’s Cave, after Hoffman, a former Director of the National Museum in Bloemfontein, who dug a trench there in (we think) 1958. Hoffman himself called it “Robberg Cave”, but as there are many caves on Robberg, this isn’t a very helpful name. It is, as everyone who has walked around Robberg knows, an enormous cave with a very large shell midden spilling out of the mouth. The path around the peninsula bypasses the cave immediately below the mouth. The surface inside the cave is very soft, so our first problem was how to move about in the cave without causing damage. With a great deal of help from the staff of CapeNature, we filled sandbags with beach sand and laid these down, together with coir mats, to make pathways across the site. We decided to work back from the western side of the trench left by Hoffman, cleaning the surface, identifying the different depositional layers, then removing them one by one using small mason’s trowels. All excavated material was sieved and the sand used to fill more sandbags, while shells, bones, stone artefacts and anything else we found were placed in bags for further study at the university.

We found a lot! The midden is packed full of shells, fish bone, estuarine grass (Zostera sp.) brought into the site for use as mattresses and cushions, as well as rarer finds such as mammal bone, stone artefacts, bone and ostrich egg-shell beads and other items. Some, but not all of the finds have now been studied. Shellfish were a major food for the inhabitants of the cave, and Katharine Kyriacou has identified the discarded shells for her masters thesis. She found that brown mussels were the most common shell species, with pear-shaped limpets second. This is interesting, since both these species are found today on the steep rocky slopes immediately beneath the cave. Siffies and alikreukel were also collected and eaten regularly. Karen van Niekerk has studied the fish bones for her doctoral thesis. She found that the inhabitants of the cave caught 29 different kinds of fish, of which the most common were yellowtail, galjoen, blacktail, harders and strepies. Species such as yellowtail and galjoen were almost certainly line-caught, while harders were probably taken with nets.

We also found stone artefacts, and items fashioned from bone, shell and even ivory. Stone artefacts of this period consist mostly of crude flakes used as rough cutting tools. A great deal of work was, however, devoted to manufacturing finely crafted objects in other materials. We found perfectly symmetrical bone points that were probably used as arrow-tips, and bone beads made by ringing and snapping bird-bones, then grinding the snapped edges smooth. We also found parts of one or more bowls made from the shells of fresh-water turtles. The upper parts of the shells were kept intact, and the undersides removed and the edges smoothed to produce beautiful and useful bowls. As in other coastal sites of this period, we found surprisingly little evidence of fishing equipment. We did recover fragments of twine that may have been parts of nets, and small stones with a groove all the way round them that were probably used as line sinkers. These are known also from Nelson Bay Cave and other south coast sites. We do not, however, know what these ancient fishermen used as hooks: nothing resembling a hook has been found at this site or any other dating from this time. Presumably they were made of some perishable material that has not survived.

It is remarkable that the entire 1.7-metre depth of midden that we excavated accumulated in only 1000 years, between about 4500 and 3500 years ago. Such a thick deposit is unusual, and offers a wonderful opportunity to get a detailed picture of changes through time. This period is also well represented at other sites in the southern Cape, from which we can infer that populations were large and population densities high at this time. We do not yet know why this was, but I suspect that the way that people were dividing up the landscape, as shown by the separation between groups on either side of the Keurbooms/Bitou estuary, was a response to population pressure and presumably pressure on food and other resources. The changes that this brought about within hunter-gatherer society, and the ways that they coped with the challenges of rapid population growth are of considerable interest, and resonate with some of the problems we face in our own society today.

Why did we not find anything older than 4500 years? At the base of our excavations, we encountered a sand-dune composed of very fine, wind-blown sand. Zenobia Jacobs, of the University of Wollongong in Australia, has dated this for us to about 7000 years ago. At that time the sea level was a little higher than today, and the shape of the shoreline was therefore slightly different. I think that the dune we see in the cave is the same one that occurs today on the side of Robberg between the cave and the ‘island’, but that it was displaced slightly towards the mainland during the time of higher sea level. It is quite possible that there is older archaeological material underneath the sand-dune, but it would be very difficult to reach it. The sand is very fine, so as soon as it is exposed it dries out and then starts to ‘run’. We do not know how deep the dune is, but it is certainly more than a metre thick – possibly several metres – so any serious attempt to dig through it would require substantial boards or plates securely fixed in place to prevent the sides of the trench falling in.

It is also interesting that the site lacks deposits more recent than 3500 years ago. Perhaps there was once more recent material on top, but this has been eroded away. Alternatively, by 3500 BC the cave may already have been so full of other people’s rubbish that it was no longer an attractive place to live, and other camp-sites were chosen instead. Nelson Bay Cave has a number of layers dating between 3500 and 2000 years ago, so people were living on Robberg at that time. After 2000 years ago, there is much less evidence of occupation. In fact, all along the southern and western coastlines of South Africa, people harvested marine foods much less intensively after 2000 years ago. This was just part of the disruption of old ways of life as the first domesticated sheep and cattle were brought into South Africa, and people turned from hunting and gathering to sheep- and later cattle-herding. Robberg is clearly not an ideal environment for these activities, and early herders would have gravitated towards grassier environments. 

Evidence from this site is making an important contribution to understanding the long-term history of South Africa. The hunter-gatherer communities who have lived in South Africa for many thousands of years have a dynamic history that is of considerable interest, although it is not yet well known. It is especially important for archaeology to document the variation in hunter-gatherer lifestyles, because it is becoming increasingly clear that there are many ways to be a hunter-gatherer. What determines which path a particular community follows? Is it to do with climatic and environmental conditions? The demands of increasing or decreasing population size? Cultural choices? As we go further back in time, archaeological remains tend to be less well-preserved and therefore more difficult to interpret. Along the south coast, we have some sites such as Pinnacle Point, Blombos, Klasies River and others that contain evidence of early modern humans who were, of course, also hunter-gatherers. Reliable interpretations of sites like these depend crucially on understanding the range of options for how to make a living as a hunter-gatherer in this environment.   

The history of Soetkraal and its people

by | Mar 13, 2011 | Talks

Speaker:     Edwin van Huyssteen

My grandfather and grandmother van Huyssteen had, with two ox-wagons, moved to Soetkraal in 1936 .  They had come from Clarence – that was on the de Vlugt side. 

They were in their early-fifties and had eight children.  Joey, their eldest daughter, was in her twenties and Philipp was just four years old at the time.  He was the youngest and became blind when he was a 13 year-old. 

Eddie, my Dad, moved to The Crags at the age of 40, buying some property there.  By then his parents had died, so he helped his brother Phillipp find some property at The Crags as well – so that he would still be living nearby. 

The farm Soetkraal  belonged to the Thesens of Knysna .  They had given my grandparents – and then the next generation – the right to stay at Soetkraal for as long as they chose to be there.  But all the van Huyssteen children had married over the years and moved to The Crags, Knysna and elsewhere. 

Access had been a problem; it was not easy.  Transport was only on horseback, the ox-wagon, or on foot. 

When my grandmother died  in 1967 they had to transport her remains by ox-wagon to The Crags; and from there to Knysna by car. In  those years a wagon took three days to reach Knysna from Soetkraal. 

The Soetkraal children went to school in Wittedrift, where they were accommodated in the hostel and went  home only for school holidays. They had to walk from Wittedrift to Soetkraal, a distance of about 60km. 

On Soetkraal they had about 600 head of cattle and about 1000 sheep.   Meat was never a problem. 

They also had pigs, goats and chickens. 

There was also considerable wildlife, which included bush pigs , porcupines, bushbuck and other buck.  Also leopards – which presented a major problem, catching sheep and young cattle.  On one occasion my Dad shot about 11 leopards which had killed 54 sheep.  The family also did some hunting with the hounds. 

Water was no problem.  There are three rivers  and it was then clean drinking water.  Rivers could overflow with big rains, which could  confine them to the farm for a few days. 

They planted potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, mealies and several other vegetables.  They also planted wheat and produced their own flour to make bread.  Timber was plentiful and people came from all over to cut down stinkwood, yellowwood and komassie trees. The timber was then transported to Knysna by ox-wagon.  There is still an old steam engine that was used to cut wood into planks  or building timber. 

The van Huyssteen family resided in the house, pictures of which survive.  Its yellowwood floors were beautiful.   

There was another house that belonged to the Vermaak family.  

Four families (Scholtz family included) stayed there at one time or another. 

Of my Dad’s brothers and sisters, only Oom Salie is still alive.  There had been five sons, three daughters. 

Soetkraal lies in a valley, with mountains on either side.  This meant strong berg winds and heavy thunder-storms.  The lightning often resulted in mountain fires that could spread – producing good grazing for the cattle. 

The access route was heavy going, skirting three fountains. There was snow on the mountain at times. 

But there was enough to eat.   And it was safe.

Changing times at Matjes River rock shelter

Changing times at Matjes River rock shelter

by | Jan 30, 2011 | 2011, Talks

Speaker:         Dr Janette Deacon

Location and history

Matjes River Rock Shelter is on private property above the western bank of the mouth of the Matjes River, a small stream a few hundred metres east of the beach at Keurboomstrand.  It was declared a national monument in 1960 because it is one of the largest shell middens in a rock shelter in the world.  Since the National Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999) replaced the National Monuments Act, all former national monuments have become Provincial Heritage Sites and in the Western Cape are managed by Heritage Western Cape in the provincial Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport in Cape Town.

 A ‘midden’ is simply a pile of discarded food remains such as ash, shell, vegetable matter and bone. This one, which is about 30 m long, 15 m wide and 10 m deep, tells the story of the people who lived there between 10,800 and 1,000 years ago against a backdrop of the climatic changes that took place worldwide during that time. Mussels and limpets were a major food source and have added to the bulk of the midden. Over 100 people were buried in the shelter, most of them children.

In 1928/29 the first archaeological excavations of the midden were undertaken by Prof T.F. Dreyer, a Zoologist at the University of the Orange Free State.  After World War II, further excavations were done in 1952-57 by Dr A.C. Hoffman of the National Museum, Bloemfontein, and Dr A.J.D. Meiring of the State Museum, Windhoek. They were interested mainly in the burials in order to identify the hunter-gatherer people who lived there.  In the belief that most of the graves would be against the back wall of the shelter, they dug away all the midden in that area, and put a trench at right angles to it in the middle of the midden, thereby isolating two piles of deposit that are no longer supported by the rock wall. They concluded that the inhabitants were the ancestors of the San (Bushmen) who were joined within the last 2000 years by ancestors of Khoe herders.

Some 40 years later, Prof H.J. Deacon, head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Stellenbosch, conducted further excavations in 1993-94 and the results were reported in a MA thesis by Willemien Dockel. The purpose of this excavation was to test whether the earlier work had reached the base of the midden (it had), and to obtain radiocarbon dates on the shells to correlate changes in sea level, and therefore climate, over the past 10,000 years. Unfortunately, erosion of the top of the midden caused by wind erosion and people trampling on it, had already removed the most recent 4000 years of the deposit in Layer A.

The results of all three excavation seasons confirmed that the rock shelter was occupied by Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers who made stone and bone tools and shell ornaments, collected shellfish, fished, hunted small game animals and seals and collected plant foods such as bulbs, herbs and fruits from the coastal forest.  They lived on the midden, made fires there, prepared skins for leather clothing and made hunting, fishing and gathering equipment. Graves were sometimes covered with powdered red ochre, and sometimes with large stones – one of which had an enigmatic painting on it – and a few were accompanied by shell and ostrich eggshell ornaments.

Changes through time

Over the time that people have lived in Matjes River Rock Shelter many changes have taken place.

Artefacts

   •          Layer A (4000 to less than 2000 years ago): a few potsherds at the very top, a few stone tools, a stone sinker, beads of shell, ostrich eggshell and tortoiseshell, small antelope bones

   •          Layer B (4700 to 6700 years ago): stone and polished bone tools for working leather, seal and fish bones

   •          Layer C (6700-7900 years ago): well made small stone tools and ornaments, burials covered with red ochre

   •          Layer D (9600-10,800 years ago):  large stone tools, bone ‘fish gorges’

Economy and lifestyle

A major change in economy took place when, between 1000 and 2000 years ago, Khoe herders came into the area and left behind some sherds of the pottery they made to store milk products from their sheep and cattle. They also hunted and collected shellfish.

Their lifestyle contrasted with that of the earlier San hunter-gatherers.

Shellfish

Changes in shellfish species reflect changing climate over the past 10,000 years. During the Last Glacial Maximum which peaked at 18,000 years ago, there was so much water locked up in the ice caps at the north and south poles that sea levels worldwide were 130 m below their present level. At that time you would not have seen the sea from Matjes River rock shelter. Global temperatures began to rise and the ice caps began to melt from about 14,000 years ago.

Layer D has mostly white sand mussels and black mussels indicating a sandy beach, lower sea level, and colder sea temperature. At this time (between 11,000 and 9000 years ago), the ice caps at the north and south pole were continuing to melt but the sea level was not yet as high as it is now.

In Layer C there are more limpets indicating a rocky shore as the sea level continued to rise.

In Layer B, the predominance of brown mussels indicates warmer sea temperatures. At this time (5-6000 years ago) it was slightly warmer worldwide and the sea level was about 2 m higher than at present.

The earlier excavators reported brown mussel shells in Layer A but as this layer was absent in the 1990s, the numbers of shellfish species could not be confirmed.

Conservation challenges

For some years after the rock shelter was declared a national monument, a caretaker was employed to be present at the site during school holidays and at weekends. After the caretaker died, no one was appointed to replace him. Visitors walked on top of the midden and climbed the steep slopes, and the fence and notice board were broken. When the excavations were completed in 1993, a wooden boardwalk was constructed with the help of the National Monuments Council, CapeNature and local donors to keep visitors away from the top and sides of the midden. Sandbags were wrapped in geotextile to protect the slopes and two information boards were installed. A peel of the sections was made for display purposes. About ten years later, after damage to the geotextile and bags by people or baboons, the Keurboomstrand Property Owners Association coordinated repairs and put up a ladder for easier access to the forest path, and SANParks with a Working for Water team made the path safer.

Because there is no sand available in the vicinity of the rock shelter to fill more sandbags, wind continues to erode the slope of the midden that has not been supported by sandbags and geotextile. The next step is to persuade some young and energetic people to fill bags with dry sand from the sides of the river mouth and carry them up the hill to the rock shelter. When we have enough, they can be wrapped in geotextile and stacked in place.

Any volunteers?

The Story of Whaling and Beacon Island

The Story of Whaling and Beacon Island

by | Sep 13, 2009 | 2009, Talks

Speaker:  Margaret Parkes

Venue:     Plettenberg Bay Angling Club.

Date: 13 September 2009

Whaling was an industry centred in Plettenberg Bay for many years. Well-known names associated with its earliest days in the 19th century were firstly that of Captain Sinclair in the 1830s, and later, Cornelis Watson in partnership with Percy Toplis before the building of the whaling station on Beacon Island. Toplis held the lease of the Island before the Norwegians took over. In July 1899 Watson was lost at sea with his boat and crew of five in pursuit of a very large right whale west of Plettenberg Bay. He and his crew, the whale and the boat were never found. Then there was Holmes, who caught a whale in October 1900, valued it at £350 and in true fisherman style said ‘the one that got away would have been valued at twice the price!’

With these reports it was only natural that whaling companies should show an interest in the southern Cape, and in 1908 the Select Committee on Waste Lands recommended the granting of a lease to Southern Whaling Company on part of the Crown Land from the mouth of the Piesang River to Seal Point, the area to be not more than ten morgen, for a Whaling Station for the manufacture of products derived from whales. The rent was to be 2/6d per morgen, the rent for the right to erect a jetty to be £1 per annum, with the lease not to exceed 25 years. In 1909 the Whaling Company Started their whaling business with no shore base, i.e. from three whaling operations afloat working from three whaling steamers with about seventy men. Thesen and Co. of Knysna were the South African agents of the new Company. However, in the following year, 1910, a representative of the Whaling Company decided not to establish the Whaling Station on land at all, owing to the Nature of the roadstead rending whaling difficult with its poor anchorage.

The next we hear of Mr. Thesen is when he was acting once again as an Agent for the Hans Ellefsen Whaling Co. Ltd., registered in Cape Town, having addressed both the Knysna Municipal and Divisional Councils in 1911 on the advantages of erecting a whaling station on either the south of Paarden Island, now known as Thesen Island, or on the Brenton shore. Without much research they were in favour of the move. Not so the townsfolk of Knysna. A large public meeting, the largest yet to be held in the Knysna Town Hall, was called by the Mayor, Mr. T. G. Horn, when Mr. Thesen was asked to address the meeting.

Dr. George Marr also addressed the meeting, having carried out research locally and having contacted the necessary authorities at Saldanha Bay, Durban and Mossel Bay for further advice and opinions, all whom were against the move due to, not only the unpleasant smells which the industry would generate but also the damage it would cause to the tourist industry, sport, sailing and swimming, as well as its effects on the local fishing industry which formed the livelihood of the poorer townsfolk and district. There was an audience of about 260 at the meeting, but only 5 voted in favour, the remainder being firmly against the proposal. To further confirm the Town’s disapproval, a signed petition was sent to Minister of Lands, who in reply turned down the proposal officially.

In the George & Knysna Herald of 22 May 1912 there was a Notice by the Department of Lands stating that J.E. Harrison of “Balmoral”, near Millwood, had applied to lease a site in the vicinity of Seal Point, facing Plettenberg Bay, for the establishment of a Whaling Station for the manufacture of “products derived from whales”, and signed by G.H. Hughes, Acting Secretary of the Department of Lands, but no more was heard about it. In June 1912, the Plettenberg Bay locals heard of two Whaling Companies intending to start operations there, – one at the mouth of the Keurbooms River on the site of the Old Residency. To this, Mr. H.D. Van Huysteen and those living on the banks of the Keurbooms River objected strongly, again because of the smells, and they said also, ‘because the oil and scum would flow up the river and settle on their grazing lands.’

It was only natural when the next whaling company was to come to this area that Mr. Charles Thesen once again acting as Agent, had to look elsewhere than Knysna for the venture. In 1895, whalebone was going at £1,300 a ton, and double that price in scarce whale years. Two right whales caught in Plettenberg Bay in 1895 gave 1,752 gallons of oil and 769 lbs of whalebone, which made it an attractive industry.

In the town of Haugesund on the south-west coast of Norway there had been a flourishing sardine industry, but over-fishing led to its decline and a prominent man in the industry, Hakon Magne Waldemar Wrangell and others, invested in whaling instead off the Norwegian coast and off Iceland where Wrangell was later to have two stations. But as the whale population in these waters declined and with stringent controls in the whaling industry increasing, Wrangell decided to look elsewhere to Spain and Angola. These proved to be not profitable, so he moved his operations to South Africa because of the growth of the industry in the East.

In 1912 the Norwegians thought it desirable to form a whaling company with a capital of 1.3 million Nowegian kroner to counteract the Chinese.  Wrangell’s dream in 1911, was to build the biggest and most modern Whaling Company in the world, choosing Plettenberg Bay, in which he invested a great deal of money. In 1913 the Whaling Station was erected on Beacon Island, Plettenberg Bay, and it was the largest station in Africa with seven of the largest whalers operated by experienced crews. The seven new whalers were built at the shipyard of Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Christiana, Norway, at a cost of 800.000 Kr. delivered to Africa. The buildings on Beacon Island, including the equipment, cost 600.000 Kr., and were placed under the supervision of Captain Jacob Odland. Wrangell, resident of Haugesund, then became the owner of the Harald Haarfagre Company of Beacon Island. His life was a real “rags to riches” story.

Who was this Wrangell? He was born on 2 January 1859, the illegitimate male child of Cecilie Tjaeradsen, his father’s name was Hans Wrangell. The baby was only two years’ old when his mother, a housemaid, sent him to her parents in Stavanger to be cared for, where he attended the local school for the underprivileged. He was a clever boy, coming first in his classes. His mother had in the meantime married a shopkeeper. Wrangell left school at the age of fifteen and at first took menial jobs such as selling cheap cigars to sailors and working for a tailor as his delivery boy until the tailor died in 1874. Wrangell then returned to help his widowed mother in her shop for two years. When she sold her shop, Wrangell went to work for the shipping company of R.G. Hagland for three years when he opened his own general dealer’s shop and started selling provisions to ships. After two years, in 1880, he started his own Ships’ Chandlers Company selling provisions to the local shipping companies. In a few years he had the biggest ships’ chandlers company in Haugesund and in 1900 owned two whaling stations, Hekla and Talkna, north west of Norway in Iceland. The third, in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, was to be called the Harald Haarfagre Whaling Company named after an early, former king of Haugesund who reputably united the many small kingdoms in Norway under one throne in about the 10th Century. Harald Haarfagre was regarded by staunch Nationalists like Wrangell as a symbol of the independence from Sweden and Denmark they strove for. His grave is situated just north of Haugesund and is often the site of a gathering place for festivities.

To start his South African venture, Wrangell acquired the lease of Beacon Island, and by February 1913 the greater part of the Island had been flattened, leaving the rocky centre dome intact on which the Manager’s home was to be built and where the historical Beacon stood with the exact longitude and latitude figures engraved on it, (which was replaced in March 1881 by Harbour Master John Fisher Sewell.)  The building materials for the wooden pre-fabs built in Norwegian style with overlapping boards and decorated fascia boards came out from Norway on a 60-day voyage on the ss Sigrun in 1913. the 4000-ton cargo was transshipped from the ss Sigrum to the beach by means of lighters brought round from Port Elizabeth. Between 50 – 60 men were employed on the task plus Coloured labourers carrying the contents of the lighters to higher ground. Mid-year, in the winter, there was a little bit of trouble, as you could well expect, when the labourers objected having to stand in the icy sea unloading coal etc. from the lighters. There were mishaps too when one lighter sank complete with cargo, and another broke its back on the beach. On the beach were iron tuns, trying-out pots, boilers weighing as much as 17 tons, plus Norwegian wood ready to be assembled for the factory complex.

The whaling complex consisted of the factory on the north side of the island with a cement slipway running into the water on which the whales were dragged up to the factory. (The slipway was still visible when we used to stay at the hotel in the 1940s and ’50s.) The manager’s house stood in the centre of the Island with the wooden single-storeyed crews’ quarters on the west side. The seven whalers that were to operate in conjunction with the factory, came out in 1913. They were newly-built specifically for operations out of Plettenberg Bay by the Aker Mechanical Shipyard of Christiana at a cost of 800,000 Kr, and the cost of the whaling station buildings was 600,000 Kr.

The first whaler to arrive in Knysna for coal and water en route to Plettenberg Bay was the SS Plettenberg, built in 1912, to be followed on 4 May 1913 at Knysna by the Zitzikamma, Captain W.Andersen; the Formosa, Captain K. Jacobsen; the Bitou, Captain J. Jacobsen; all having taken a 45-day voyage out, calling at four points for coal etc. en route. The arrival at Knysna jetty of the four whalers plus the Thesen-owned SS Agnar which was lying alongside the jetty, and the little SS Clara which operated between Storms River mouth and Knysna, must have given the Knysna harbour area the impression of really bustling port.

These four whalers were followed by three more, the Piesang, Captain Svendsen on 15 May 1913; the Goukamma, Captain Johan Langeland; and the Knysna, Captain O. Olsen. The whalers were to become frequent visitors as they went to Knysna not only for water and coal but also to lie off the sand bank to be cleaned and painted, and in the off-season to lie off Brenton shore, for which permission had to be obtained from the local Port Office.

In the first season in 1913, only 211 whales were caught with 8,800 barrels of oil produced 4,000 bags of guano, leaving a debit of 6 – 7000 Kr. The 1914 season was a busy one with ships calling in to take out cargo, and others calling in with cargo. In March, ss Haugarland, with Captain O.C. Mathiesen at the helm, called in to collect cargo for Europe, and in the same month the chartered vessel from Norway, the ss Lesseps took on a cargo of whale products valued @ £19,925 for Europe. In June, 160 whales were taken, and the ss Lesseps took away 7000 barrels of oil. In July it was reported that 220 whales had been taken for the season, and in the following month the ss Lesseps called in again taking away whale products to the value of £20,377.  In the following year, in January 1915, the SS Lesseps took away whale products valued at £18,125.

In August 1915 it was reported that two sperm whales were taken and in November it was reported that only 9,800 barrels of oil for the whole season were exported. By September 1916, 170 whales had been taken up until this date, and the production of oil had dropped to 8,200 barrels. Also, charter costs for steamers to take barrels of oil to Norway had increased during WW1 from K500 to K1900 per month. The Company then decided to make this year their last, and to close down the swhaling Station.

Besides these steamers collecting barrels of whale oil and other whale products, there were others of the Thesen Steamship Co. bringing coal from Durban, the ss Karatara calling in February, May and June 1914, and the ss Agnar shipping 4,150 bags of whale guano and bonemeal out from the Bay in March 1916. Captain Abrahamson of the 100 ton ss Elida was also taking coal cargo to Plett. returning from Plett. with oil to Cape Town.

Wrangell’s dream was not without its nightmares. The first disaster was that of the Manager, Captain Jacob Odland in April 1913 while he and a group of friends were travelling to Knysna in his smart red car of 20 – 22HP when someone smelled burning of metal as they descended the Nekkies into Knysna.. Odland immediately drew over to the side of the road and punctured the petrol tank to prevent an explosion. But despite this, the car was badly damaged except for the 4-cylinder engine. All that remained that was useable was the engine which Odland sold to Leonard Thesen and H. Noren for £20. The engine was later mounted onto a flatbed truck of the South Western Railway, which ran from Knysna into the forest, used by Thesen and Co. to transport their men from Brackenhill to Paarden Island in Knysna for the building of their new saw-\mill.

Mishaps generally come in threes – the next disaster occurred when Captain Waage of the Plettenberg was injured while trying to harpoon a whale just south of Plett. Two harpoons had already been fired but did not kill the whale quickly enough for the Captain’s liking, so he fired a third harpoon without taking all the necessary precautions and the harpoon glanced off the whale carrying the line upwards catching the Captain on his left side, injuring his left leg, and coming under his left arm which was broken in two places and even caused the loss of one of his eyes. The plucky skipper first landed the whale at Plett before proceeding the next day by sea to Knysna for medical treatment. Later that week, after the Captain had been successfully operated on, and whale oil having been sent to Europe, the next disaster to occur was the fire on 15 July 1914 when the large double-storeyed building containing the machinery and boilers for rendering the flesh and offal of the whales into animal food and fertiliser, caught alight and was almost totally destroyed. Much of the building was of course, built of wood. However, by using hoses they were able to save the working platform, the hauling engines and the blubber boiling building on the west side. The dynamo and electric generator were also destroyed, placing the loss at £7,200. By February in the following year, much of the damage had been repaired, but before the factory came into operation again, the carcasses of the whales had to be dumped at sea, which further increased the Company’s losses.

The next disaster to occur was the wreck of the 40-ton whaler, the Piesang, on the bar in the Knysna Heads at 10 a.m. on 1 September 1914. The whaler, under the command of Sivert Svendsen with a crew of ten men, was loaded with a water ballast, capsized as she entered the Heads. The whaler was caught by a huge roller which mounted suddenly and hurled the Piesang nearly over on her starboard side, the vessel then righted herself when the same roller turned her over again on her right side submerging her utterly in the process. It all happened in a few seconds. It was thought by some that the lifeboats may have shipped water and been part of the cause. The tragedy was witnessed by the pilot at the Heads who immediately raised the ball on the signal mast to prevent the other two whalers from going out, and the sailing ship, Westphalen, loaded with creosote for the government railway sleeper factory, from coming in. Conning Benn, the Signalman, witnessed the tragedy and rushed down to the shore to offer assistance. The Captain was found lifeless, floating face down in the water, and only five members of the ten-man crew were saved. The wreck lay blocking the mouth of the harbour, the Durban tug Sir John was then sent for and the Captain tried to lift the stricken Peisang with a hawser – but it gave away.  It was then decided to blast the wreck. After this was carried out, the body of the chief engineer Karl Ivar Hogberg of Haugesund and another engineer were released, plus that of the steward, Gabrielson. The body of Petrus Ohrn was found at The Heads and that of a sailor, at Coney Glen. The bodies of all five men were buried in the Anglican cemetery opposite the hospital in Knysna. One of the survivors, Gunner Severin Jacobson from Aucklandshamn later became a famous gunner in the Haugesund area.

I had the privilege last year of meeting the grandson Helge Kallelund, of the engineer Karl Hogberg of the Piesang, who came out to Knysna to view the site of the disaster and to learn more about the wreck. Helge told me that his grandfather had nine children and he joined the whaling fleet out here as they were offered double pay. A temptation that anyone with a large family as Hogberg had, would take, and it is a tragedy that it had to end in disaster.

With World War 1 making shipping risky and difficult and the fact that in 1916 only 8,200 barrels of oil was produced, it was decided to close the factory down and sell the machinery etc. to the Union Whaling Company of Durban. The six remaining whalers were disposed of in 1917 to the French Marine, delivered to Port Said and used as patrol boats. All of them had their names changed immediately to French names: the SS Plettenberg became the Rouget; the Formosa, the Congre; the Knysna, the Dauphine III; the Bitou, the Sardine; the Goukamma, the Sole; and the Zitzikamma,the Raie III.

 

After the sale of the whaling company, the Beacon Island was advertised by the Department of Lands to be leased. The lease was auctioned on the stoep of the Knysna Magistrate’s Court. The first Lessee was Mr. Thomas Herbert Hopwood and his wife Annie, nee Newdigate, of Forest Hall. Tom Hopwood joined the Crown Mines after the Boer War where he was employed as a Shift Boss. On 2 December 1916 he and four other men came to the rescue of a miner with three African assistant miners who had been badly gassed underground. For this brave deed he and the other men were each presented with a medal and an engraved gold watch for bravery.

Tom arrived in Plettenberg Bay in 1920 and in partnership with a Mr. and Mrs. H.I. Plaskett ran the Beacon Islet Residential Hotel. The partnership was dissolved in February 1922. The Hopwoods used the Norwegian-built ex-Whaling Station Manager’s home – a double-storeyed house consisting of a large dining room, lounge, six bedrooms plus what had been the crews’ quarters – a long single storeyed building on the west side of the Island.  We, as children, went there in the 1930s with our parents and I can vaguely remember sleeping there with our Nanny, Miss Stevenson.  About twenty boarders could be accommodated there but what most folk remember is the flush toilet, – and flush it was!  The toilet was placed on two girders which spanned a gulley in the rocks known as ‘doodval’ with duckboards on the girders leading to the toilet. The other memory is of the pool in the rocks on the south east corner of the Island known as Mermaids’, or Eve’s Pool, in which we used to swim.

My father recalled that the food was very plain as the Hopwoods often ran short of things, so guests would bring a certain amount of their own rations to augment the menu. Father said that if they ran short of rations Mrs. Hopwood would apologise and give a kiss! In 1926 when the lease came up for renewal, the Hopwoods took up a further 5-year lease at £165 p.a. with an advance of 100 guineas. They ran it until 1931 when Mrs. Rosina Parkes – no relation – took it over.

I was shown the Hopwoods’ Visitors Book which made most interesting reading. The first entry, the 22nd September 1921, was that of then recently retired ex Civil Commissioner, Colonel Calcott Stevens and Mrs. Stevens; in 1922, other folk of importance were Bishop and Mrs. Sidwell of George and Magistrate and Mrs. Strong. In 1924, the well-known deaf-and-dumb artist, Harold Boyes, and George Cearn directly from Nairobi who was to play so important a rôle in the development of Leisure Isle, were visitors, and in 1930 the Minister of Railways and Harbours, Charles Malan. Signatures of residents of the surrounding areas were those of the Thesen, Newdigates, Dumbletons, Metelerkamps, and my parents – (five months after I was born.) It is interesting that some of the names are still associated with Plettenberg Bay. In 1932 Mr. and Mrs. Mackie Niven of Sundays River, 1930, the Wheeldons of Grahamstown, many visits by the Diceys of Orchard and Wolsley from 1924 onwards; R. Tredgold in 1926 and almost a month’s stay by Owen Grant of the Wilderness in January 1926, followed by further short visits. It was Mr. Grant who was later to purchase Beacon Island in 1938. Other visitors came from Johannesburg, Bulawayo, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, etc. at the same times as running the hotel, in 1922 Tom Hopwood had a fish smoking business called The Pioneer Fish Curing Works where the Why Not restaurant was. One of their employees was Angus McCallum.

There was a very rickety old wooden bridge from the mainland to the hotel and you had to leave your car on the mainland and have your luggage carried over the sand when you came there on holiday. The newspaper in 1927 referred to ‘a unique and pretentious bridge constructed over the river to the island’ but my memories in the 1930’s were of being quite afraid of crossing on it.

The last entry in the Visitors’ Book is of 25 May 1932 when the Hopwoods left the hotel and retired to their farm Ashlands at The Crags on land that Mrs. Hopwood had inherited from her father, W. H. Newdigate.  It was later owned by Brigadier Hansen. Tom Hopwood died in June 1934, aged 64 and Anne followed him later in 1941, aged 83. Here they are both remembered by a street name after them. On their departure from the hotel it was taken over by Mrs. Rosina, Elizabeth Muller Parkes, born Raubenheimer. Her husband, originally from Scotland, had died earlier and Mrs. Parkes came originally to this district as a nurse during the 1918 ‘flu epidemic. On the death of her only daughter she decided to take over the hotel in 1932, making a few small improvements, and running the hotel, as Father said, very efficiently.

Mrs. Parkes left the Beacon Islet in 1936 to purchase and rebuild part of the old Thesen holiday home – “The Look Out” advertised “For Sale or To Let”.  This she ran successfully as the Look Out Hotel on the site now occupied by the Plettenberg Hotel. Mrs. Parkes died in Plettenberg Bay on 15 April 1952 aged 71.

The Island was then untenanted for three years when an advertisement appeared in the Government Gazette of 9 September 1938 for the sale by the Department of Lands of the Island of 1.5604 morgen and Piesang River mouth of 79,211 sq. ft. at the purchase price of £1,500. Conditions of sale were that the purchaser was required to demolish all structures on Beacon Islet within six months and to erect a new hotel within five years, and the total cost of the hotel building, outbuildings and bridge or causeway crossing the river, plant for water supply, sewage and lightning to be not less than £12,500. The inscribed Admiralty Beacon was to be protected, and no building of any description would be allowed at Piesang River mouth. Further regulations stated re: access, water from the springs near the Signal Station, and sewerage.

Owen Grant purchased the Island, part of the attraction being that the National Road from Durban to Cape Town was about to begin construction, and he thought that with Plettenberg Bay’s lovely beaches so close to the road that it was destined to become a prime tourist attraction. Tenders were called for in August 1939 by Grant for the purchase and demolition of the Norwegian buildings. On the formation of the company Beacon Islet (Pty.) Ltd. Grant became the owner of the land from the Island to near Robberg, which later was acquired by the General Mining Company. Grant included this land in the new Company for £8,000 with the cost of the purchase of the Beacon Island, the buildings of the hotel, plus the land, the Company’s capital was £75,000.  At a meeting held with the government’s representative, Plettenberg Bay’s residents and Grant, it was decided that a path of 5ft. above high tide right round the Island would be reserved for all time for the fishing community.

Grant had the land along the Robberg Beach surveyed and laid out in plots of half an acre, roads were made and the plots were put up for sale at the upset of £200 – 300 per plot. Father bought one just round the corner as you drive along ‘Millionaire’s mile’ and had it levelled, as did Dr. Fritz Leuner in the adjoining plot. We said to Father – “if you build there, we will get on our bicycles and ride into Knysna!”  Father sold this plot shortly afterwards for £600!

The architects of Oudtshoorn, Messrs. Simpson & Bridgman, were engaged to draw up the plans for a new hotel which was to resemble the upper deck of a ship. The hotel was to accommodate 150 guests with a square bedroom block of 3 floors, all bedrooms to face outwards for the view built in 1939. The social area of the hotel was single-storeyed on the north west corner of the Island with the anglers or fishermens’ lounge to have a stone fireplace to the right of the entrance. Opposite was the reception area. The hotel had an open square grassed courtyard in the centre with an atmospheric old iron whale blubber pot standing on the grass. The childrens’ dining room was on the left of the courtyard and the large dining room faced east with seating for 200. The large lounge with a large stone fireplace, was alongside and to the south of the dining room. I will always remember the trouble they had with the steel windows rusting badly being so close to the sea and rocks. A lovely situation to sit in and look out upon the sea, but it brought its difficulties. As with the Whaling Station, some of the building material was delivered by sea by the 172 ton ss Chub bringing 3 full cargoes of timber and other building necessities delivered to Knysna and brought over to Plett by truck.

Grant had his own generator, or ‘power station’ – if one could call it that, which was situated on the north-west corner of the entrance. My other memory is of the red ‘stoep’ polished passages and steps leading up to the bedroom block. He built a causeway across the Piesang River with a hard core road leading to the hotel, completed  in 1939 – an ambitious undertaking, – as well as a nine-hole golf course constructed in the valley as well, west of the Robberg beach dunes. The course started from the banks of the Piesang River and about 300 yards from the door of the hotel. It was designed by Dr. Charles Murray and constructed by Mr. F.E. Knapp.

In February 1940 Owen Grant advertised that as the hotel was expected to open 1 December 1940, local farmers who were interested in supplying the hotel with fresh produce could apply for schedules of what was required.  My father and Owen Grant built their hotels simultaneously.  The Royal Hotel was opened in Knysna by Charles Thesen on 1 December 1939 just after War had been declared. As the tourist trade began to suffer as a result Grant advertised special rates to attract visitors:

 

Friday Dinner  to Monday breakfast – now £1.10.0 (was £2.2.6d.)

Friday Dinner to after Supper Sunday – now £1.5.0 (originally £1.13.6d)

Saturday Dinner to after Supper Sunday – 15/- (originally 18/6d.)

 

When the German army had reached Egypt in 1942 the British Military authorities decided to evacuate the families of civil and military personnel holding British passports resident in Egypt to South Africa. Owen Grant and Father made contact with the South African Military authorities and Mr. Kemph of the Evacuee organisation offering accommodation in their hotels for the evacuees. The Royal Hotel in Knysna was allotted 60 officers’ wives – a mixture of Greek, French, Maltese and Eastern Mediterranean nationals. The first batch of 130 evacuees arrived in Knysna in July 1942 and were divided between the hotels in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay of which 48 were sent to Plettenberg Bay. The second batch of 44 women and 41 children arrived at the end of July, of which 71 were sent to Beacon Island, Plettenberg Bay. Those who were assigned to Beacon Island were a rather motley crowd who very soon aired their dissatisfaction at the lack of facilities with only one shop, no cinemas and all the urban facilities that a town has to offer, in spite of the fact that the area had been inspected and reported on beforehand! Fortunately the evacuees did not stay long and were moved to perhaps brighter lights elsewhere. In September 1942 Owen Grant advertised in the newspaper that the hotel was once more open to the public.\Hugh Owen Bruce Grant, founder, and one of the many owners of the Beacon Island hotel, was born in Finchley, London, England on 30 June, 1883 and trained as an engineer, working in 1904 on the Lobito/Benguela railway line in Angola. From there he went to Kenya where he contracted blackwater fever and moved to South Africa to recuperate. While recuperating, he camped with H.J. Raubenheimer an attorney in George and helped to lay out the Fairy Knowe Hotel. In 1921 in conjunction they formed The Wilderness 1921 Ltd. Co. which developed the Wilderness Estate, and later built the Wilderness Hotel. In 1956 he sold his shareholding and his interest in the Wilderness and turned back to Plettenberg Bay where he lived and developed the Sanctuary. He promoted Tourism in the Southern Cape, and laid down the landing strip here

 In 1946 Grant had sold his controlling shares in The Beacon Islet (Pty.) Co. Ltd  to Baron Ulrich Eugene Behr. My memories of this time is seeing the tall stately Baron dressed in jacket and trousers sitting in the beach watching his rather masculine wife swimming!  After one year the Baron sold his shares to a Mr. Cohen of East London. I was with my parents at the time when Cohen announced he would have a deep yacht anchored in the Bay, etc. But nothing came of it and he had to sell his shares to a Mr. Pullen, a farmer from Oudtshoorn district who held them for a few months only. With the other shareholders’ consent he sold them to an Englishman, Mr. Wilson, for £90,000. In 1948 Wilson paid out all the shareholders and formed his own Company.  After three years Wilson sold the Company to General Mining for £150,000. They in turn sold the Island to Solly Orenstein for £90,000 when my father became once again a Director together with Mr. J. Prentice.  At that time the hotel was most successfully managed by Brian Taylor and his wife. They were particularly kind to my parents, as was the Head Waiter McKenzie, perhaps because they each had good Scottish surnames.  McKenzie was from the Transkei and my father, from Inverness. Orenstein subsequently sold Beacon Island hotel to the Southern Sun Hotel Group. Grant’s hotel was demolished to make way for the present structure designed by Andre Hoffe and opened in December 1972.  Although the modern building is so constructed as to leave a larger part of Beacon Island in its natural state I personally still miss the older hotel with its memories.