Navigational Beacon

Erf 253  Plettenberg Bay – Beacon Island Drive

Compiled by Rodney Grosskopff

It is generally accepted that the first navigational beacon was erected in 1772

on the rocky peninsular, now called Beacon Island, but there is more uncertainty around who was responsible for its construction. Andrew Duminy contends that it was placed later than 1772, even though we are assured that the date was copied from the original stinkwood.

About this time, the Dutch authorities were under pressure to develop the Cape, particularly beyond the Outeniqua Mountains, for security and financial reasons. Explorers searched for passes and roadways, but the only viable access to the Cape was at sea. Therefore, charts were made and various navigational aids were sourced to help mariners confirm their positions.

At the end of the 18th century, there were only four (4) people who could have erected the beacon:

The captain of Katwyk-aan-Ryhn, who visited the Bay in July 1778, recorded that the Bay itself was not marked on his chart, nor any beacon. However, a local farmer, Cornelius Botha, who was already established there, informed him that it was called ‘Angoela Bay’. 

In late 1772, Carl Peter Thunberg visited Plettenberg Bay on horseback.  A year later, he travelled around the Cape peninsular with two unnamed companions and undertook a long journey, visiting Algoa Bay for a short while. His biographer, Patrick Cullinam, has speculated that Robert Jacob Gordon, Van Plettenberg’s military chief, may have been one of those companions. This suggestion is further enhanced by the rumour that it was Gordon who suggested renaming the Bay, ’ Van Plettenberg’s Bay’ after his boss. Even If Thunberg and Gordon were around, it is unlikely that they took the necessary equipment or that they spent enough time to make the readings.

We know that Francois Rene Duminy was around at roughly the same time. It was he and his two commissioners, J. G. van Reenen and Egbertus Bergh, who drew up a contract in which Cornelis Botha was allotted 25 erven ‘Langs die Piesang Revier’. We are not sure of the date, but we know from a map drawn by an unknown cartographer that Botha was already well established before 1777. This meant that Duminy must have been there sometime before. In 1781, he was employed by the VOC and engaged in investigating the development.  We also know that he led a commission to investigate the viability of a timber industry in 1785 and later in 1788.

Duminy, who himself was a very experienced navigator and cartographer, could well have erected the beacon. 

We are led to believe that the original beacon was made of stinkwood and was engraved:                                          

  1. 3.38.S
  2. 23.22.55.E
  3. Var.   29.W

Andrew Duminy holds that our beacon was erected between 1859 and 1862 as a result of a survey by Captain William Bailey which was commissioned by the British Admiralty in the aftermath of the sinking of the Birkenhead.

Paricia Storrar records that the original stinkwood beacon was replaced in 1864 with a stone replica. If Bailey’s survey was completed in 1862, it may well be that the replacement was prompted by the survey because a correction was required or because the stinkwood had perished.

In 1881, the beacon was replaced by Captain John Fisher Sewell, the Customs and Port Officer of the Bay at the time. In June 1912, Thesens obtained permission from the Civil Commissioner for Knysna to reduce the height of the rocks on which it was placed by some four metres, in order to build the new whaling station. It was approved on the assurance that it would be replaced in the same spot geographically.

Bibliography

Storrar, P. 1978. Portrait of Plettenberg Bay. Cape Town: Centaur Publishers, Cape Town.

An address given by Andrew Duminy to the Van Plettenberg Historical Society.