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| Cape Columbine Lighthouse |
Our next
Lighthouse Keeper of interest is Japie Greeff, who has experienced several
appointments around the coastline and is currently stationed at Cape Columbine,
near Paternoster in the Cape Province. As the sun sets on the days of manned
Lighthouses, Japie, as Senior Lighthouse Keeper, will be one of those last men
to follow the rigid routines demanded of them every day, to ensure that the
Light is turned on at twilight.
Japie commenced
his lighthouse career at Diaz Point Lighthouse, Luderitz, Namibia, in 1979 and
as a matter of historical interest, Diaz Point is named after Bartholomew Diaz,
the Portuguese Captain who took shelter in the bay and was first to sail around
the Cape of Good Hope in 1487-1488.
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| Diaz Point Lighthouse |
The Diaz Point Light
overlooks a cold sea, fed by the northerly running Benguela Current bringing
nutrients from the Antarctic. With the
up-swelling of the rich nutrients along this foggy western coast, it delivers the
food that feeds some of the world’s largest shoals of fish. This bounty has attracted a fishing fleet which
is based in Luderitz
Harbour.
As well as the
management of the Light and being technical men, their expertise was in demand
and they were called on to perform other local duties. On one such day, Japie had an interesting
experience . . . .
“I was sent to replace batteries for the channel buoys
in the harbour in Luderitz, which is the town approximately 27km from Diaz
Point. By the time I had finished the
work I had been sent to do, a ‘Transvaaler’ from Johannesburg had launched his speedboat to go
and catch crayfish. At the Lighthouse, I
told the guy that the sea is rough on the outside as you pass the outside of
the harbour. He just took one look at me
as if to say, ‘You don’t know what you are talking about?’
I shook my head, thinking a speedboat is only meant
for rivers and dams and certainly not for the sea. I went across to see the
Harbour Master and told him about this guy, because it is a speedboat and is
not made for the sea, but only for dams or rivers, but he told me not to worry,
that they knew what they were doing because they had been fishing for many
years and were experienced.
I then phoned the Lighthouse Keeper at Diaz Point to
be on the lookout for the so-called ‘experienced fishermen.’
The wind was blowing at 25 knots and off they went.
By the time I arrived at the Lighthouse, the speedboat
was taking water and was adrift! The Lighthouse Keeper called for assistance
from a local fishing vessel to rescue the men, because we did not have Sea
Rescue in Luderitz.
Two days after they had been rescued, the ‘Transvaaler’
came to the lighthouse to say ‘Thank you’ for the help they had been given,
with a bottle of whiskey.
The Senior Lightkeeper told him,
“If your life was depending on whiskey, then take this
bottle with you and get the hell off my station! If you do not listen to what my Keeper told
you, then go and drown yourself!”
We never saw or heard from the ‘fisherman’ again!”
Still at Diaz
Point, and on a less serious note, Japie also shares this amusing anecdote with
us.
“In those early days, we installed our own generator plant as we had
no electricity supply and had three four-cylinder, and two two-cylinder Ruston motors. We discovered that some Cape Sparrows,
or better known to us all as ‘Mossies’, were actually breeding in the exhaust
pipes. Every year in the month of
November, we were besieged with black Mossies flying around the Lighthouse!
One day we had a visit to the Lighthouse by a student
from the University
of Cape Town. On sighting
the ‘black birds,’ he became really excited, telling us that he was studying
birds and declared these to be a very rare species! Convinced that he had hit the jackpot, he made
copious notes about these unique birds, to report to his Professor and headed
back to Cape Town.
Unbeknown to us at the Lighthouse, arrangements were
underfoot and the next thing we knew, the student, his Professor and a film
crew were flying up from Cape Town!
The Professor started asking questions, keen to see
where the birds were breeding. I took
them around to the generator, started up the engine and after two puffs, out
flew the black rare birds!
‘This is where they breed,’ I told the Professor.
An annoyed Professor, film crew and a crestfallen
student returned to Cape Town
with some explaining to do!
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| Japie Greeff, right, and assistant |
A series by Suzanne-Jo Leff Patterson
August 2015
