20th century landings at Natal

Sail and steam co-existed at Durban for many years. From the early 1880s progress gradually began to be made in deepening the harbour channel by dredging. This and other schemes for improvement, including the controversial breakwaters designed by several harbour engineers, continued through the following decade, though the bay remained inaccessible to vessels of a deep draft.

By 1904 as a result of continued dredging operations 33 million tons of sand had been shifted.

On 26 June 1904 the Armadale Castle was the first mail ship to cross the Bar and enter the harbour. She was the flagship of the Union Castle Line (Union Line and Castle Line having amalgamated in 1900) weighing in at nearly 13 000 tons and with a draft of 7,6 metres.

This historic crossing marked the end of the basket-landing era. Passengers would be able to disembark by gangplank directly from ship to shore. The arrival and departure of the mailships became glamorous and exciting events drawing crowds of sightseers: bands played, and coloured streamers were thrown by travellers on deck or by their friends who had come to ‘see them off’.

Between 1947 and 1848, in the optimistic years following World War II, the Union-Castle Company Immigrant Service brought 28 000 British immigrants to South Africa.

For family historians, the best way of tracking an ancestor who departed by ship from British ports between 1890 and the 1960s is via the passenger search facility provided by ancestorsonboard, powered by www.findmypast.com/  This information stems from original Board of Trade passenger records; regrettably records prior to 1890 were destroyed.

Direct link to the search form: www.findmypast.co.uk/passengerListPersonSearchStart.action?redef=0

The Windsor Castle would be the last mailship to make the regular call at Durban, in July 1977. When she departed, so did much of the romantic aspect of the port.

Note the original lighthouse close to the end of the Bluff: opened with much ceremony on 23 January 1867, its beacon went out for the last time on 15 October 1940 and the structure was demolished by the military in June 1941.

The Point, Durban, from the Bluff during the 1890s: note the mixture of sail and steam.

Settler Ancestors from Europe to Natal in the 1880s

While the majority of settlers to Natal continued to be of British origin, other countries also explored the prospect of Natal as a destination for emigrants. In 1880 the Natal Government was petitioned on the topic of Danish emigration. A couple of years earlier, Otto Witt and a business partner, Fristedt, intended introducing immigrants from Sweden into Natal, and requested land on which to locate them.

However, the next major group of immigrants from Europe were Norwegians and they arrived in 1882, founding a settlement at Marburg on the south coast of Natal between the Umzimkulu and Izotsha Rivers. UPDATE: see further posts on this topic in 2014

For passenger lists of Germans travelling from Hamburg from 1858 to 1883 see Joachim Schubert's exceptionally useful site at www.safrika.org/schiff_en.html  These passengers disembarked at various South African ports.

By 1880, Walter Peace had taken over as Natal Immigration Agent based in London. The Natal Mercury, 19 May 1880 reported the arrival of the URMS African from England after a very good voyage.

She had on board 60 immigrants - 20 men and 10 women and children. The men are carpenters, blacksmiths, farm labourers, engineers, gardeners and joiners, and the women, housekeepers and domestic servants.  We have little doubt that we have to thank Mr Walter Peace ... for such a large and respectable class of immigrants as landed at the Point yesterday. Mr Peace has this year been instrumental in sending out a total  of 200 immigrants. Early yesterday Mr Reid of the Immigration Depot went out in the Union [tug] and boarded the African for the purpose of looking after those who were arriving here under the Immigration Act and in a short time the Union landed them safely on to the wharf. Some friends of the immigrants were present, but there were some more who found themselves on a foreign land without those who required their services being there to receive them.  For such parties Mr Reid had made preparations by having tents erected on the Market Square for their reception, and it speaks well for the friendship formed by this large body when we mention that in no instance was a poor stranger allowed to enter the tents; those who had found friends kindly looked after their less fortunate fellow passengers, and in a short time they were all distributed throughout the town in boarding-houses. They spoke highly of the treatment they received while coming out. An infant, aged a little over a year, died on the 18th of April. The names of the passengers will be found in our shipping column.

The above passenger list is online at: http://web.archive.org/web/20100405235250/http://www.genealogyworld.net/rose/maritime/african.html

URMS African

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