Page 110 - KBHA BULLETIN 3

107

I have taken my boat along with the Kalk Bay fleet to fish in Hout Bay, Dassen Island,

Saldanha Bay and Stompneus Bay. There were several shipwrights in those days, something
scarce today, and I learned to steam and fire planks, to caulk the boat, and to repair my own

engine. The past fifteen years I have fished full time and my last two boats, Elvira and

Hobbit, I built myself.

I owned a house and lived in Windsor Road for more than 10 years, and had a shop on the
Main Road called The Boating Store. We supplied all the equipment needed by the boat

owners and fishermen, from antifouling paint and anchors to clothing and fishing tackle. I

also ran the cold store in the harbour for several years and supplied bait to the fishermen. For
a while I also had one of the diesel supply points in the harbour - in those days there were two

oil companies supplying fuel to the boats.

Why this book was written

Kalk Bay was different in the 1960s and 70s. The New King’s and Majestic were still in
operation, there were several pubs and bottle stores in the area, all very busy. There was a

butcher, a chemist, a plumber, an electrician, a petrol station, and a shoemaker. I was here

when they were still culling seals on the Island and landing the pelts in the harbour. I
remember one attempt to use the carcasses for pet food. Louis Williams, known as the

“Duiwel”, was still fishing with his boat Ang-Jerry. Jimmy Edwards and his sons were all

fishing, and so was old man Fernandez. Every year there were masses of white stumpnose
caught in the harbour; we caught chokka off the harbour wall and in Fish Hoek Bay; we

caught mackerel, yellowtail and tuna. Some years Kalk Bay harbour was full of boats and

crew from other harbours around the coast who came here for the snoek. In those days the
snoek followed a regular pattern of moving down the coast until they appeared here in the bay

just before the season closed.

Through the years I have been fortunate to meet many of the older generation of fishermen,

the ones who could still remember the early days and what their parents and grandparents had
told them.