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THE TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE

Address to the Kalk Bay Historical Association’s AGM on 23 March 1999

George Stibbe

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me here to talk to you tonight and thank you for the warm response
you have shown to our book. What I would like to do is to give a brief background about

myself and why this book was written and how we went about it.

Then, because we all love Kalk Bay and we all know that it is the harbour, the fishing boats

and the fishermen that give Kalk Bay its unique character, I would like to enlarge on some of

the things mentioned in the book and describe things as they are today. There are, I believe,
some important issues that need understanding if we are serious about preserving this

heritage.

About myself

Like my co-writer Iain Moss, I grew up in the area. I went to school in Fish Hoek and I spent
much of my youth fishing either from the rocks or the harbour wall, and occasionally I went

out on one of the boats. I finished schooling at the General Botha and then went to the

merchant navy where I served as a cadet through to Master Mariner.

In the sixties I bought my first fishing boat, the Triton which, even though it had a Kelvin
power paraffin engine, still carried the original mast and sails. Ever since then I have had a

boat in Kalk Bay Harbour. I owned the Barbara Jean, and then one of the very old boats the

Lucille Way, built in 1948 and powered by an 80 horse power Bukh engine.