Showing posts with label Namaqualand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Namaqualand. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 December 2024

South Africa: Rachel, Aurora, Congella, Hogni & Seli 1 shipwrecks

SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage

Skeleton Coast, Namibia

September 8:

“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”

1854: Rachel, this sailing schooner foundered in Hondeklip Bay in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape. Very little is known about this vessel.

1875: Aurora, this wooden sailing cutter wrecked south east of Cape Recife in the Eastern Cape.

1903: Congella, this steam-powered ship wrecked in the outer anchorage of East London in the Eastern Cape.

1936: Hogni, this steel steam-powered whaler was scuttled just beyond the three-mile limit, off the coast of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Its scuttling was observed by 160 spectators on board the SS Panther.

2009: Seli 1, this Panamanian bulk carrier was driven ashore at Bloubergstrand in Table Bay in the Western Cape just after midnight in a strong westerly. It had suffered an engine failure and whilst at anchorage, a strong westerly picked up and blew it from its anchorage. The crew of 25 were promptly rescued by the NSRI and the Seli 1 sustained structural damage. Salvage operations attempted to remove the 600,000 litres of oil onboard the ship and over the years the SAMSA slowly removed parts of the wreck before it disappeared below the water in 2013. An oil spill that occurred during the salvage work reportedly resulted in the slicking of 219 birds.

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Monday, 3 June 2024

South Africa: Cottager, Catherine Scott, Western Knight, Zulu Coast I, Fong Shong 22 & Fame shipwrecks

SAHRA Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage

April 8:

“This day in our shipwreck and aeronautical wreck history”

Top 5 shipwrecks in Namibia YouTube video:

1845: Cottager, this wooden sailing vessel wrecked southwest of the entrance to Saldanha Bay off the west coast in the Western Cape. Two men died during the wrecking.

1878: Catherine Scott, this wooden sailing barque wrecked after its cables parted in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape.

1929: Western Knight, this steel steam-powered freighter ran aground in thick fog and abnormal currents between Willows and Schoenmakerskop in Port Elizabeth in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape.

A Ford Model A being salvaged from the Western Knight (1929)

After striking the rocks, the No. 3 hold, engine, and boiler flooded. The cargo was salvaged by the famous Captain H. F. van Delden, and included items like refrigerators, motor vehicles, tyres, and agricultural machinery.

The Western Knight's (1929) back broke shortly after wrecking

Frank Neave, a local photographer, spent several days photographing the wreck and the salvage operations.

The Western Knight (1929) being battered and broken by the surf

1953: Zulu Coast I, this motor-powered coaster wrecked in fog near the Groen River Mouth in Namaqualand on the west coast in the Northern Cape.

1976: Fong Shong 22, this steel motor-powered fishing vessel (tunny boat) wrecked in thick fog on the northwest point of Dassen Island off the west coast in the Western Cape.

2000: Fame, this South African fishing vessel foundered off Ballito in KwaZulu-Natal.

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Monday, 9 May 2022

South Africa: Loeriesfontein in Northern Cape & Windmill Museum

Loeriesfontein is a small town in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The town of Loeriesfontein is within a basin surrounded by mountains, and it is accessed from the N7 highway (north out of Cape Town), turning off on the R27 at Van Rhynsdorp to Nieuwoudtville, then following the R357 to Loeriesfontein (a further 65 km north).
Loeriesfontein became a municipality in 1958, but it has since lost that status in a re-organization of municipal responsibilities that incorporated it into Hantam Local Municipality.
Windmill Museum: The late Dr. Walton, a British born Capetonian was well known for his interest in different aspects of conservation, including the conservation of water-pumping windmills or wind pumps. He wrote a book on this subject with the late Mr André Pretorius ("Windpumps in South Africa", published by Human and Rousseau in 1998 but currently out of print).
In order to share this collected knowledge with a wider audience, he invited potentially interested organisations and places to start a windpump museum. The Fred Turner museum at Loeriesfontein was the only respondent. Since its establishment there, the museum team and interested persons all over South Africa have sponsored and collected 27 wind pumps, now assembled and on display.
The town grew around a general store established in 1894 by a travelling Bible salesman, named Fredrick Turner, the son of the sister of Charles Spurgeon. He came from Norwich, England. The store still exists. It is currently owned by Victor Haupt, the grandson of Fredrick Turner. The shop is currently called Turner & Haupt SPAR, and is 113 years in the family.
Southwestern Loeriesfontein forms part of the wider region known as Namaqualand, an area well known for its spring flowers (August and September) and its great variety of different plants - some 4,000 varieties are said to be evident in this region. The flowers attract visitors to the region, but at other times agriculture (sheep) and mining (salt) are the main commercial activities.
Loeriesfontein Renewable Energy The Loeriesfontein and Khobab Wind Farms are part of the South African Government’s Round 3 Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP) and are managed both in terms of construction and operations by Mainstream Renewable Power South Africa.
The Loeriesfontein and Khobab Wind Farms, are expected to be operational by December 2017. Situated in the Northern Cape, which has the highest volume of renewable energy utility power plants in the country, these sister wind farms comprise a total of 122 wind turbine generators, spanning 6,653 hectares. Collectively the wind farms will power circa 240,000 South African households, positively impacting the country’s economy and its people.
The two wind farms achieved over 2 million man-hours of construction activity without a single lost-time-incident during their construction period. “Considering the sheer scale of these power projects, the multiple levels of activities and the complexities involved in building these very large wind farms, it is an impressive achievement for our construction team.
Fred Turner folk and culture museum
The culture and historical way of life of the "Trek Farmers" of Namaqualand (also known as Bushmanland or Hantam) is displayed in this museum which is housed in the old school adjacent to the Windmill display (which is in what was the school playground). More than 1000 items are on display, including a trek wagon, equipped tent, kook skerm and a horse mill.
Salt pans
100 km from Loeriesfontein in the spacious plains of Bushmanland are salt pans (dwaggas) that are still in production.

Quiver trees
Large quiver trees (sometimes referred to as "Aloes") can be seen on the road from Nieuwoudtville to Louriesfontein.
Loeriesfontein - небольшой город в провинции Северный Кейп в Южной Африке. Музей ветряных мельниц: покойный доктор Уолтон, капетонец британского происхождения, был хорошо известен своим интересом к различным аспектам сохранения, включая сохранение водяных ветряных мельниц или ветряных насосов. Он написал книгу на эту тему с покойным Андре Преториусом («Ветряные насосы в Южной Африке», опубликованной Human and Rousseau в 1998 году, но в настоящее время не издаваемой). Чтобы поделиться этими собранными знаниями с более широкой аудиторией, он пригласил потенциально заинтересованные организации и места для открытия музея ветряных насосов. Единственным ответившим был музей Фреда Тернера в Лорисфонтейне. С момента его основания команда музея и заинтересованные лица со всей Южной Африки спонсировали и собрали 27 ветряных насосов, которые теперь собраны и выставлены на обозрение.
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Monday, 5 October 2020

Mission House in Warmbad: the oldest building in Namibia | Старейшее здание в Намибии

Mission House in Warmbad: the oldest building in Namibia

Little does the uninformed visitor realize, which fascinating history lies hidden behind the whitewashed walls of the old mission house in Warmbad. Its old base walls and foundations make this house the oldest existing building in Namibia. Yet, it has never been declared a national monument.
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The origin of the old mission house dates back to the year 1808 when the brothers Abraham and Christian Albrecht of the London Missionary Society and a colleague Bastiaan Tromp built three tiny dwellings at this very site. Their mission effort was short-lived though as Abraham Albrecht died in 1810 and his brother Christian had to flee from Warmbad in 1811. Shortly afterward Jager Afrikaner – the father of Jonker Afrikaner – destroyed the entire station. However, in 1812 the reverend Schmelen found the burnt walls of the houses still intact. The reverend J.L. Ebner, who came to Warmbad in 1818 and built a rush hut inside the burnt remains of Abraham Albrecht’s house to serve as a temporary shelter, confirmed this.
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In 1834, the reverend Edward Cook of the Wesleyan Mission Society arrived at Warmbad. He immediately set out to build a house on the existing ground walls of the old mission house of Abraham Albrecht. The teacher and mason Peter Links assisted him. The wood for the house was fetched from the Orange River, while the rushes were obtained a day’s journey from Warmbad. By September 1834, a two-storied house, built according to the so-called ‘kapsteilhuis’, had been finished. Typical for this type of home were the massive chimney stacks of the open hearths situated at both ends of the house. The house had two rooms on the ground level, while another one – the loft – was situated above a reed ceiling and a thick layer of mud. It was accessible via an external staircase through a doorway in one gable. The directly adjoining remains of the house of Christian Albrecht were soon re-built into a church. The roofs of both buildings were thatched.
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As Warmbad was situated on the main wagon road connecting the Cape with Great Namaqualand and areas further north, the mission station became an ideal stop-over for many missionaries, travelers, hunters, and scientists. Among the first was Sir James E. Alexander in 1836 and the reverend J. Tindall in 1840. He not only assisted Cook by extending and improving the mission house and the church but also became one of his successors in 1851.
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During the Nama war, German soldiers occupied the mission house. When the Dutch reverend Herman Nyhof arrived at Warmbad in 1907, the buildings were in a desolate condition and it took him a long time to repair all the damage. During the First World War, the mission house served as barracks for the Union troops. After reverend Nyhof’s death in 1936 the buildings were, once again, in a sad state of neglect and some of them were so disintegrated that they posed a danger. Part of the mission house – probably the loft – collapsed later and it was resolved to close it. With the exception of a few years during the 1960s, the mission house stood empty and was only occasionally occupied by visiting missionaries and evangelists.
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During the course of a clean-up and restoration action in Warmbad in 2005, the old mission house was also upgraded. It is hoped that it will soon find a caring occupant, who will restore it to its former glory and that the National Heritage Council will finally proclaim the building a national heritage site.
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1. Mission house and church of Warmbad in 1876 (Photo: W. C. Palgrave).

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October 1988: The old "Pastorie" of Warmbad which is built on the Foundations of the House which was established by the London Missionary Society Brothers Abraham and Christian Albrecht in 1805.

4 & 5. Warmbad: Rhenish Mission Church.

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October 1988: The dilapidated Church of the Rhenish Missionary Society at Warmbad, inaugurated by Missionary Weber in 1877.

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October 1988: The old "Pastorie" of Warmbad which is built on the Foundations of the House which was established by the London Missionary Society Brothers Abraham and Christian Albrecht in 1805.

10. Rhenish Church - with a memorial for missionaries who served in Warmbad.

11, 12, 13 & 14. Warmbad: Rhenish Missionary Church.

15. The backside of the old mission house in Warmbad today.

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April 2003: The old "Pastorie" of Warmbad which is built on the Foundations of the House which was established by the London Missioary Society Brothers Abraham and Christian Albrecht in 1805.

17. Warmbad barracks, early 20th century.

18. Stamps for German South West Africa postmarked Warmbad 1898.

19. Donkey cart in front of the Warmbad S.A. Territories Ltd building, early 20th century.

20. Memorial for missionaries who served in Warmbad.

21, 22. Some of the many ruins in Warmbad.

23. Remains of the German Fort at Warmbad which has been 1913 restored as the present police station: It served as the headquarters of Lieutenant Walter Jobst at the time of his death in October 1903, and was blockaded unsuccessfully by Marengo's forces in 1903 and 1904.

24. Memorial for the missionaries who served in Warmbad.

25. Garrison and Doctor's House in Warmbad.

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