Page 126 - KBHA BULLETIN 5

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floors, nut beech and birch instead! It was intended to provide comfort and convenience and,

though Vernon de Smidt (Fig. 6.2) and his wife had no children themselves, to be a family
home. (In those days one bathroom was enough for that!). It deliberately chose an English

style, Georgian at that, and avoided the Cape tradition of the previous building. It has a
sleeping balcony. It does not just have a front door bell, but bells from the bedrooms and

dining room connected to the kitchen, a maid’s room, minute in contrast to the others, albeit
with a very substantial bath. With 400 window panes it needs someone to clean them. It was

the sort of house where some people would be expected to call the occupants ”Master” and

“Madam”, and probably to go to the back door.

Some of us may remember the good old days of the Kalk Bay Post Office, and the Postmaster

we had in the 80's. A client went in there one day with a large parcel. He weighed it, looked
at her with a wry smile and said: “If you live in St. James you might be able to afford this, but

not if you live in Kalk Bay.”

In this again the church leaders are apart from a large section of the community. Oral legend
indicates that members of the fishing community got that message.

The Kalk Bay Fishermen

After the Second World War there appears to have been a significant development among the
fishermen of Kalk Bay. Coloured fishermen had owned and sailed the open boats, but the

engine-driven boats had been the preserve of white fishermen. Some of the former began to
ask themselves why it was not possible for them too to own and skipper these boats. They

worked hard to achieve this goal, some of them going to the fishing fields in the then South-

West Africa, spending months away from their families in not very comfortable
circumstances. At the same time they were assisted by the then government through Viskor

which enabled them to have a loan, once they paid a third of the cost as deposit.

In 1962 the Poggenpoel brothers acquired their first boat, the Anna Amelia, which was later

joined by the Marion Dawn and then Star of the Sea. Last year the Anna Amelia was sold,
and in her place the Mymoena was bought at a cost of R1,6 million. She was launched at

Stompneus Bay on 31 August 2000, and it is a measure of the way of life of the owners that
they asked me to bless the boat at her launching.

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