Conch schooner and other Cape shipping October 1834

South African Commercial Advertiser 30 October 1834

Here the Conch is described as a fast-sailer but after another ten years steam was gradually beginning to overtake sail as the favoured method of transport by sea: 

19 Oct 1844 SACA

By this time Captain Bell had been offered a position as Harbour Master at Port Natal, though with the inevitable colonial bureaucracy there would be some delay before he was able to take up the appointment officially, followed by a dispute over his job description and remuneration. Bell, never one to bow the knee, stuck to his guns, returning to the coastal mariner's life until matters at Natal were arranged more appropriately.  Bell and his family (at that stage his wife and 4 children) finally sailed for Natal on the Douglas on 19 January 1850 to start the new phase of their lives.