Post on 28-Feb-2023
The Maritime Landscape and Labor in False Bay Area: Fishers, Whalermen, Seedies and Kroomen
Lynn Harris
SERSAS 2014
Program in Maritime Studies
East Carolina University
Local Population of Simon’s Town
“…a fair mixture… principal are Africanders and Kaffirs. There are also a large number of Britishers, Malays and Indians…the Kroomenwe brought from Sierra Leone we discharged into the dockyard.”
Crew man Donoghue (Act. bomb. R.M.A), Cape Station Flagship HMS Crescent (1904)
“…an epitome of the world at large. Every race under the sun
is represented there Indians, Malaysians, Parsees,
Coolies….the Dutchmen, the original inhabitants are big bold
men hating the English with a steady “brother-in-law-hatred”
Crewman CSS Alabama, 1863
Dutch and Malay
Dutch Reformed Church (1855)
Dutch East India Company as a
military observation post (1683)
Simons Town Mosque (1888)
1993-Present Imam Abdul Gakiem Raban
Conflict: New Themes and Arguments
•Role of Africa and Arab Sailors within the royal navy in the Indian Ocean 1841-1941
•Naval operations in Simon’s Town
•Peripheral supporting communities for the dockyard and naval community
What are the archaeological and historical
signature or footprints of these communities?
Sources
•Early Dutch and British government records of Cape Colony
•Logs and journals of vessels visiting or stationed at Simons Town naval base
•Early photographic collections
•Family records and memoirs
•Archaeological reports
•Shipwrecks and vernacular watercraft
•Historic Structures
False Bay Towns
• “Dreary desert”
• “Horrid Crags”
“…the grand spectacles of nature: I had on
my right the Atlantic, on my left the Indian,
and before me the Southern Ocean: which
breaking fury at my feet, seemed desirous
of attacking the whole chain of mountains
and of swallowing up Africa”
Le Vaillant, Naturalist 1796
Early Fishing History
K-A-bel –jouu! Nice and fresh caught this morning!”
“You know a snoek is
just like Mike Tyson,
they both got dangerous
teeth”
Whaling
The ground on which this house stands
was granted to Johan Hendrik Muller on 4
April 1814. The house was presumably
built as early as 1795. It is very probable
that in the course of its long life the house
has had some alterations, for instance the
kitchen. Type of site: Residential, Whaling
Station
Early Dockyard
Christopher Webb Smith. Simon’s Town, c1838. View from the high ground above Admiralty House of the harbor and shipping in Simon’s Bay
• HMS Scepter shipwreck
recycling project
• Dock workers and “ply
for hire” regulations
Martello Tower
• The Martello Tower was erected in 1796 on Sir James Craig's orders, to make the defense system of Simon’s town more effective.
• Oldest British structure of its kind in the world
Historical Sources on Krumen and Seedies
•Naval ships logs
•Shipwreck accounts
•Census records
•The Cape Laws and Proclamations
•Explorer reports
•Gravestones