Souvenir Saturday: E Larsen, photographer, and family

Here we have a photograph of a photographer.
Emil and Gusta Larsen with daughter Dora (b 1897 d 1926). 

Gusta was the daughter of Thomas and Ane Dahle of Lot 30, Marburg.

Photographed around the turn of the century. Cabinet print.

Emil Larsen and his twin brother Sigvart were both photographers in the Dundee, Vryheid, Volksrust triangle. In October 1900 the Larsen home was occupied by the British, who destroyed all the family's photographic plates. Regarded as 'undesirables', the family were given one hour's notice to leave with a British convoy. Mrs Larsen, a British subject who had recently lost a child, was 6 months pregnant and Mr Larsen, a Norwegian and a non-combatant, had four brothers serving with the Royal Durban Light Infantry (RDLI).

See more at www.icon.co.za/~salbu/BoerWarLarsen.html

Emil Larsen initially operated a studio in Greyville, Durban. By the turn of the century he and his brother Sigvart were working together as Larsen Bros at 410 West Street, Durban - the studio mentioned on the above photo mount. Emil crops up in 1904 at a studio in Winder Street, Durban; after that, entries for him in the Natal Almanac cease.

Natal Almanac entries re Larsen photographers, Durban.

1894  Natal Almanac Larsen ‘F’, photographer, Greyville [probably an error for ‘E’]

1896 -1897 Natal Almanac same entry as above ‘Larsen, F’

1898 Natal Almanac – first mention of Larsen, E, photographer, Greyville’ [the Almanac corrected their error in this edition]

1899   Natal Almanac Larsen, E   Greyville  

1900 Natal Almanac – first entry for Larsen Bros 410 West St.

Acknowledgements:

David Larsen

Umhlanga Panorama with Lighthouse 14 July 2016

Photo by Lyle Dixon-Smith

Click to Zoom

Lighthouse Gravestone

Lighthouse Gravestone in cemetery at Burwen, Anglesey

The inscription on the stone reads: In loving memory of Thomas Cunningham, beloved husband to Mary Jane Cunningham 41 Mona Street, Amlwch Who departed this life August 17th 1910 Age 70 years.

Thomas Cunningham had been a lighthouse keeper in China, possibly in Shanghai, for about 30 years.

Acknowlegement:
Graham Mason

Souvenir Saturday: Lighthouse keeper's view, Bluff, Durban ca 1860

The Bay of Natal from the Bluff  ca 1860:
  watercolour by unknown artist, from an Album amicorum. (author's collection)

This is the view my lighthouse keeper great grandfather Thomas Gadsden would have looked out upon from the Bluff lighthouse during his tenure there (1867 - 1880s). 

It is taken from the seaward end of the Bluff looking across the Point and Bay towards the heavily wooded Berea, with the buildings of D'Urban clustered onshore, right. A sailing ship negotiates the entrance channel in the foreground, dhows and other small craft are seen in the Bay, and the tug Pioneer, her single stack smoking, is in the centre of the picture, near the Point. At left is the signal station and signalman's house on the Bluff. It is possible that the tall building on the extreme right represents St. Paul's Church.

The painting can be dated to post December 1859 because the steam vessel shown is undoubtedly the Pioneer, Natal's first steam tug. She was 124 tons and was despatched (fitted with masts and sails) from the Thames at the end of July 1859, arriving in Durban 111 days later, having made the journey under sail only, her paddles being fitted in the Bay after her arrival here. On Boxing Day 1859 she was shown, flag-bedecked, to the assembled populace, and crossed the Bar with various dignitaries on board, sailing out into a choppy sea beyond the Bluff - to the discomfort of some of her passengers.

A rare find, this little watercolour in ornate embossed surround, was one of several original drawings in a mid-nineteenth century 'Album amicorum' (what we used to call an autograph album), bound in gilt maroon calf. The artist has signed himself (more probably herself) 'L.C.' and entitled the picture 'Bay of Natal  and; Town of D'Urban'.

A peaceful and attractive colonial scene, though with hidden dangers lurking - many vessels came to grief on the beach or the Bluff rocks.

The notorious Bar, a sandbank across the entrance to the Bay, was the greatest hazard to shipping at Port Natal, and 'should on no account be attempted by a stranger, as the channel frequently shifts in direction and depth'. It was this problem, the changing depth of water over the Bar, which frequently necessitated vessels anchoring in the roadstead outside, and, if a gale sprang up, there was a chance of them being driven on-shore or wrecked on the rocks below the Bluff. A case in point was the Byrne settler ship Minerva, 987 tons, which was wrecked on the night of 4 July 1850 when she parted her main anchor in a sudden north-easterly while waiting in the 'roads'. Though the 2nd mate drowned, all the passengers were saved, but the ship became a total wreck and the immigrants' personal belongings went to the bottom. 

Only three months after Thomas Gadsden's arrival, the Sebastian and the Earl of Hardwicke were beached in a similar gale on 26 September 1863.

Waratah anniversary reminder: July 1909

Waratah at Port Adelaide before her voyage to Durban.

A poignant letter written by a crew member on 26 July, from the SS Waratah in Durban, was received by his sister in London.  

'Just a line to let you know we arrived here safely after a pretty rough voyage from Adelaide. For 13 days after leaving that place we had heavy seas and weather and a lot of the deck fittings were broken and carried away by heavy seas that swept over the vessel. The last five days however have been fine and we got here yesterday midday (Sunday) and we leave the Cape Saturday next, on 31^st  July for London, where we will arrive on August 21st although we are not due until the 23^rd.' 

The ship never arrived at the Cape. Her precise fate and the location of her wreck
 remain unknown

Advert from Sydney Morning Herald 26 June 1909

Memorial protea wreath for the Waratah centenary in July 2009

(photo courtesy Suzanne-Jo Leff Patterson)

For much more on the Waratah see waratahrevisited.blogspot.co.za/

Unusual Bluff view and Gadsden family

Bill (William Bell) Gadsden, my father, great grandson of
Capt William Bell of Port Natal, grandson of Thomas Alfred Gadsden Bluff Lightkeeper, and son of Sydney Bartle Gadsden of James Brown & Co.

Souvenir Saturday: Bluff Hotel Tea Room ca 1902

Bluff Hotel Tea Room
Photograph by Lazarus Bros, Durban.

Battle of the Somme Centenary: Lest We Forget

July 1916: the opening phase of the Battle of the Somme. British troops in a communication trench before an attack.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/first-day-somme-timeline-how-8318629

HQ Company 8th East Lancashire Regiment at Whizz-Bang Corner,
Fonquevilliers, 1915

A staggering 22,000 men lost their lives on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916.

The largest battle of the First World War would continue until November, with Allied and German forces locked in a bloody, muddy stalemate as the daily death toll rose.

It would go on to become the bloodiest battle in history, with more than a million soldiers wounded or killed.

Britain alone lost 794,238 troops.

Bell, Capt William Douglas, Port Captain of Natal

Captain William Bell with his telescope.
Note the absence of epaulettes on his coat in this photo.
Probably taken ca 1860.

Bell's Dollond telescope showing maker's mark and 'Day or Night' engraved on the side.
(photograph by Caz Collins, a Bell descendant)

DOLLOND

For a time in the eighteenth and nineteenth century the word 'Dollond' was almost a generic term for telescope rather like 'Hoover; is to vacuum cleaner. Genuine Dollond telescopes were considered to be amongst the best although there were several other London makers of the highest quality.

In 1764 Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang) bought a Dollond 3-foot achromatic telescope with a double objective lens. Then, in 1766, Frederick the Great instructed his London ambassador to buy two telescopes from Dollond's 'because they magnify extraordinarily the object'. A Dollond telescope sailed with Captain Cook in 1769 on his voyage to observe the Transit of Venus.
   
In 1780 Dollond introduced the Army Telescope (or 'Improved achromatic telescope'). This is the standard type so often found by modern collectors with a mahogany body and brass draw-tubes. They were between 14 and 52 inches long with a lens aperture of between 1 and 2.75 inches. They cost from 2.5 to 12 guineas.

Thomas Jefferson visited P+J Dollond in 1786 and bought a telescope for 10 guineas. Admiral Lord Nelson would also make a special visit to purchase a Dollond. Because Dollond & Co's records were destroyed by fire in the 1920s it is not usually possible to trace the lineage of individual telescopes, even when the serial number is present.  

A Typical 19th c Dollond of brass with leather-covered barrel

'Dollond' is actually spelt with an 'o' as the fifth letter. Many people get this wrong. If a telescope is marked 'Dolland' (with an ‘a’) then it is quite likely a counterfeit product.

Acknowledgements to www.college-optometrists.org/the-college/museum/online-exhibitions/virtual-observatory-gallery/telescopes-part-1-.html

Bluff Lighthouse, Durban, Bell group and keepers' cottage

Bluff Lighthouse, Durban.

Bell Group outside lighthousekeepers' cottage, Bluff.
More about this early photograph, the people in it and the date
coming soon.