Lighthouse Green Point Natal, Clansthal

Green Point lighthouse, Natal.

The Green Point Lighthouse, otherwise known as the Clansthal Lighthouse is in Clansthal, between Scottburgh and Umkomaas and shouldn’t be confused with the other Green Point Lighthouse, known as Mouille Point Lighthouse, in Cape Town.

Erected in 1905 it has a cast-iron structure and is painted in red and white striped bands.  It served to warn mariners of the presence of the Aliwal Shoal, 5km offshore, and was the second last lighthouse to use petroleum vapour burners. This building is a national monument. Since 1961 the lighthouse has been fully automated.

To avoid the Aliwal Shoal, ships rely on three lighthouses – Ifafa Beach, Port Shepstone and Green Point. Aliwal Shoal, named after the ship, Aliwal, that sunk here, consists of incredible hard and soft corals and diverse tropical and subtropical fish, and is considered a “hub” for scuba divers around the world.  The lighthouse at Ifafa has a radio beacon that has helped prevent further shipwrecks along this coast.

Early days at the Green Point Lighthouse; ca 1905

Address: Clansthal, Ezembeni
Height: 21 m
Opened: 1905
Light source: mains power

Port Shepstone Lighthouse, Natal

Port Shepstone Lighthouse July 2013

Port Shepstone, on the southern bank of the Umzimkulu River, was named after the 19th c colonial statesman, Sir Theophilus Shepstone.

The first vessel to enter the Umzimkulu River, in 1880, was the coasting steamer Somtseu. The energetic colonist William Bazley started building a wall at the mouth of the river in 1882 and about ten years later Port Shepstone became a functioning harbour.

Its first light was constructed in 1895: a simple ship's masthead lantern mounted on a platform on a ladder-like structure placed on the southern bluff of the river mouth. This served the purpose of lighthouse and signal station and was manned by a Norwegian, E K Andreason, from June 1889 until his retirement at the end of 1929.

In 1906 the lighthouse at Scottburgh, which had previously marked the southern end of the Aliwal Shoal, was dismantled and put up at the port. 'It was equipped with a petroleum vapour burner replaced in 1912 by an acetylene gas apparatus. This apparatus consisted of a 187.5 mm focal distance, three-panel optic using a twenty litre incandescent mantle burner. It produced a single white flash of 27 000 every ten seconds. The lens was rotated by a weight-driven clockwork machine.'

This was replaced in 1961 by an electric motor reduction gearbox unit, changing the light to one white flash every six seconds. The lighthouse became fully automatic in 1963: the range is 24 sea miles. 

With its circular tower painted in distinctive black and white checks, the lighthouse is a well-known landmark on the south coast. This dangerous coastline is associated with numerous shipwrecks, including those of the Sao Joao and the Grosvenor, occurring two centuries apart but both remaining topics of fascination and research.

Position: 30 44 30.1 South, 30 27 33.0 East


Further reading: Harold Williams: Southern Lights, Lighthouses of South Africa (Waterman 1993)]

Aliwal Shoal

This submerged reef off the southern Natal coast has caused the wreck of many ships, but, contrary to popular misconception, not that of the barque Aliwal, after which it was named.

The reason for the shoal bearing the name Aliwal is that it was from this vessel that the mass of rock was first sighted.

The Aliwal was a Byrne settler ship of 425 tons, commanded by Captain Anderson, which carried 117 emigrants from London to Natal, arriving safely on 14 December 1849 (some sources give 10 December). While at anchor at Port Natal, the Aliwal survived two easterly gales without sustaining any damage.

A letter to the editor of the Natal Witness, 14 January 1850, quotes a letter written by Anderson as follows:

'I think you would like to know that about 30 miles to the S.W. from Natal, and distant from the land about 2 miles, I observed a very large and dangerous reef, or shoal, with heavy breakers.'

Prior to Anderson's sighting of the shoal, it had not been alluded to in any shipping directories.

In response to the above letter in the Natal Witness the missionary, JC Bryant, then living at the Ifumi mission station, commented in February 1850:

'To the Editor of the Natal Witness
Sir,
In the Natal Witness of Jan 18th is an extract of a letter from Captain Anderson of the Barque Aliwal, giving information of a shoal or rock near the coast about 30 miles SW of Natal. From my own observations I can testify to the correctness of Capt. A's statement, as I have often seen from my residence at Ifumi, a line of heavy breakers apparently a mile in length, and about two miles from the shore. I cannot give the locality of the rock or shoal better than by saying it appears from the land to be 3 or 4 miles SW of the Umkomazi River. The breakers, however, are not always seen, in nine days out of ten, or perhaps in nineteen out of twenty, the sea appears smooth, and a vessel might pass near the place and no one on board suspect the danger. The breakers commonly appear after a strong southerly wind, and perhaps they may also be affected more of less by the state of the tide.
Yours truly,
JC Bryant.
Feb 12th, 1850.

In his book 'Southern Lights', Harold Williams mentions that the shoal is approximately 4 kilometres long and 1 kilometre wide.

'The sharp northern peak is barely covered by water and, on the rare occasion, the sea breaks over it. When this occurs the white foam is clearly seen from the shore. The centre of the Aliwal Shoal is approximately 5 kilometres from the coast and Admiralty charts indicate that a natural current of about 3 knots flows from south to north between shore and shoal. Some ships' masters set courses, when travelling up the coast to Durban, which take them through this narrow channel, but the slightest miscalculation or drift can result in disaster.'

Among relatively recent ships lost on the Aliwal Shoal were the Aimee Lykes and the SA Pioneer. The British steamer SS Nebo, while on a voyage from Sunderland to Natal, struck the shoal on 20 May 1884 and sank immediately; she still lies there intact.

The reef is today a mecca for divers.

Aliwal was a place in the Punjab in India, where Sir Harry Smith (Governor of the Cape) gained a decisive victory over the Sikhs on 28 January 1846. Aliwal Street, Durban, may commemorate this battle and the visit to Natal by Sir Harry Smith in 1847, or alternatively may be another memorial to the ship the Aliwal.