Page 68 - KBHA BULLETIN 4

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for him. They then brought the Isabella into Kalk Bay. There was a lot of change after that:

Langley, Zeeman, Hoets and Lezaar are names of others who were connected with whaling at
that time. The houses of note in Kalk Bay were ‘Villa Capri’ owned by Muller. He and his son-

in-law, Langley, also brought up whales at St. James. At ‘Pentrich’ the blubber pots stood in the
garden and the blubber was melted down there. Auret was another person who whaled in Kalk

bay and then moved on to Muizenberg. (Figs. 3.3 & 3.4.)

Whaling also took place at Fish Hoek and there were two stations here. One was on the Clovelly

side and the other, operated by Osmond, was in the area of what we know now as Jagger’s Walk.

In 1832 the South African Almanac and Directory described the whaling situation in False Bay:

“In False Bay, of which Simon’s Bay forms a part, there are two Whale Fisheries,

Kalk Bay and Fish - Hook Bay, at which were caught during the last season, 10
whales; 15 others were struck, but escaped. This may be worthy of remark; for

should the old fish live after being wounded, it is supposed that they would not
return to this Bay, and their calves would become accustomed to some other

shore.”

During the 1830s – 1850s the Miller brothers had a whaling station at Miller’s Point.

Unfortunately a fire in the 1960s destroyed the house, together with the photographs and books
from this station, and a lot of history was lost. In Simon’s Town, Hablutzel and Budge whaled at

Seaforth and the blubber was rendered locally into oil in the typical huge pots. (Figs. 3.5 – 3.10.)
One of their harpoonists was a man called Thomas who killed the last whale taken in False Bay

in October 1927. Mr Jenkins was a harpoonist for Hablutzel’s. (Fig. 3.11.) On the eastern shore

of False Bay there was a small whaling station at Gordon’s Bay and another at Stony Point, Cape
Hangklip. (Figs. 3.12 – 3.13.)

Relatively few accidents were reported during the time of whaling from the little boats that were

rowed out to kill these huge animals. It was reported in 1879 that 28 people died after eating

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