"THE FAIREST CAPE" a Port Elizabeth Travel Page by PEE-WEE

THE FAIREST CAPE IN ALL THE WORLD
Sir Francis Drake said these words of the Cape of Good Hope when he sailed round it in the 15 hundreds, However this is also the Cape of the Flying Dutchman doomed to sail round the Cape until judgement day.
It is also the Cape that has claimed uncountable ships and lives, the earliest been Portuguese in the early 15 hundreds. An early attempt was made by the Portuguese to land in or about 1510 this met with a disastrous end when the landing party was massacred by the local Hottentot community. The English met with no better luck in the early 16 hundreds when they attempted to settle convicts on Robin island. The English eventually repatriate the convicts and hanged them.

It was the Dutch in 1652 who managed to settle and build the Castle at the cape, however for the next three hundred years the Cape of Good Hope would continue to take it’s fearful toll on ships and lives.
The Dutch lost a fair number of ships along the coast and later so did the English. In 1782 the Honourable east India Company lost the ship the Grosvenor on the Natal coast few survivors ever reached the Cape to tell of the disaster a large number of the crew and passengers simply vanished in to Africa. From the outset they were plagued by the natives robbing them of any metal they had in there possession and further more they did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the poor ship wreaked folk of the Grosvener. A number of expeditions were sent out from the Cape to look for survivors but very few were found. In the year 1754 another ship of the Honourable East India company the Dodington came to grief on Bird island in Algoa bay again few survivors reached civilisation the ships carpenter managed to build a small boat which the survivors sailed back to civilisation. This boat a sloop was sold to some of the local s once it reached civilisation.

By the end of the 18th century a large number of ships had already been lost along the coasts of South Africa but squire rigged ships of the East India companies continued to make there way to and from the East with goods to sell and buy. In the early 18 hundreds a number of ships were wreaked of the coast of Algoa bay the Amsterdam a Dutch man of war sank of the coast to the east of the present day Port Elizabeth. And so gave it’s name to the area still known to day as Amsterdam Hook. Another Dutch man of war the Zeepad came to grief on the western approaches of Port Elizabeth at more or less the same time.
In the mid 16 hundreds there was another ship wreak in this area a Portuguese ship by the name of the Sacramento was lost in a storm this ship was carrying newly founded cannon for the king of Portugal. These cannon can be seen at the Port Elizabeth Museum they way many tons and are made of bronze.