Page 9 - Bulletin 4 2000

6

Kalk Bay becomes a D. E. I. C. trans-shipment point

It was during the 1740s that free burghers Frederijk Russouw and Antonie Visser played an important

role in providing supplies to the returning ships calling at Simon’s Bay. Together these two burghers
applied their own resources to improving the wagon track between Kalk Bay and Simon’s Bay. The

purpose of this was to increase their ability to supply the ships. The road, however, remained at most
times in a poor state of repair and Russouw and Visser directed their appeals to the Governor for

improvements, as many of their oxen died en route from exhaustion.

In the 143 years of D. E. I. C. rule at the Cape over 7 000 oxen died through strain and overwork. The

Dutch often bought these oxen with liquor and tobacco from the Khoi whose herds became seriously

depleted. The Khoi also became addicted to alcohol and the ill-effects of this contributed to a breakup
of their social structure as cattle were their greatest source of wealth.

So bad was the road that in August 1738 the returning ship Huis’t Spijk was unable to receive

supplies by road. It was then that the D. E. I. C. decided on a different strategy. The road was
improved from Cape Town to Kalk Bay. From 1739 onwards, flour, wheat, barley, and beans were

taken by ox-wagon to Kalk Bay. Here they were off-loaded and ferried to Simon’s Bay in boats sent

across from there. Kalk Bay and Fishery Beach now became an important link in the supply chain
from Cape Town to the ships seeking winter anchorage in Simon’s Bay. In 1740 forty-one D. E. I. C.

ships were re-stocked by this method. The Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and the Company
Storekeeper Jacobus Möller travelled on several occasions to Kalk Bay to check that the method was

working smoothly.

Eventually in 1742 an instruction was issued to all D. E. I. C. ship captains that Simon’s Bay was to

be the winter anchorage from 15 May – 15 August. Kalk Bay remained important as a trans-shipment
point for consignments of iron and timber because the road onward to Simon’s Town remained poor

and was never really upgraded during D. E. I. C. times. Governor Swellengrebel made many trips to

Simon’s Town, and he stayed over at Kalk Bay when the weather was too bad to sail across. In 1744
the Council of Seventeen expressed satisfaction at the progress. At Simon’s Town a small settlement

grew gradually. By 1800 this comprised some 20 houses, a magazine and storehouses containing
workshops and forges, a hospital, slave quarters, and a small company garden.

6