Drowned in Durban Bay 1880

A brief inscription on a family memorial stone in the remote parish of Gamrie, Banffshire, Scotland, provided the only initial clue in a search for James Donaldson born 6 September 1856, ‘drowned at Natal on 4th September 1880’. His great grandniece, hoping to discover more about his untimely fate, had checked Marine Records in Edinburgh without success. What James could have been doing in Natal was a mystery..

His date of death fell neatly between the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and the First Anglo-Boer 

War which began in December 1880. There were certainly plenty of likely scenarios for a 

drowning in Natal: such accidents often occurred during military conflict, with troops 

transporting supplies by wagon across rivers like the Tugela. Natal has a lengthy coastline, 

and James Donaldson could equally well have drowned in the sea, not necessarily as a 

shipboard passenger or mariner, but simply fishing from a boat.

The chances of finding out more about James were good, since he died in Natal, and the first 

step was to look for a deceased estate file. One James Donaldson MSCE (Master of Supreme Court Estate) reference emerged on NAAIRS, a file held in Pietermaritzburg Archives. There 

was nothing on the index to reveal whether this was the correct individual, but since it was the only reference and the date was right, it was well worth accessing the original file.

There weren't many documents contained therein; however, what they lacked in quantity they 

more than made up for in quality. The Death Notice - on pale blue paper and in the horizontal 

format customary for these documents at that date - gave his age as 24, which fitted perfectly 

with the birth year of 1856 provided by the descendant. 

No place of birth was given, but his father's name, George, appeared, as did the information 

that James was a bachelor, had no children, and had left no will ‘as far as is known’. This

latter was hardly surprising: at that age one imagines one is immortal. Death evidently

overtook young James unexpectedly. There was a short list of the deceased's possessions, provided by the informant, John Crawford. The most significant piece of information on

the Death Notice was under the ‘Where Died’ column: ‘In the Durban Bay’. At this point, there

was little doubt that we were on the track of the correct James Donaldson.

Durban Bay 1880s

A Minute Paper contained a note from the Resident Magistrate with reference to the effects of

the late James Donaldson, ‘supposed to have been drowned.’ There was a further mention of 

John Crawford, who was to be ‘summarily appointed as Executor Dative’ in the estate. The Magistrate delivered himself of the opinion that ‘the value of the effects of the deceased 

would not fetch £40 at auction’ - this sum having been suggested by the informant, Crawford, 

when completing the Death Notice form.

So, what were these effects? All was to be revealed in the two-page handwritten deposition 

of Crawford himself:

Before me, Arthur Mesham, Resident Magistrate, Durban, appeared John Crawford, who, being duly sworn, states: 'I live on the Point Road. I am a ship's carpenter. I am acquainted with James Donaldson now dead, having been drowned on the 4th September 1880, presumably by tumbling overboard the Lotus - I knew him in England - I know his father and mother - they are alive and living at a place called Macduff in Scotland - I came from the same place - I wish to become possessed of his property consisting of 1 chest of tools 1 chest of clothes two watches, and whatever money there may be due to him as wages from Captain Armstrong. I make application in order that I may hand them over to his family. I paid his funeral expenses £10. I am willing to act as executor dative of deceased's estate. Sgd. John Crawford.'

The official inventory of Donaldson's effects noted that £8 10s ‘in the hands of Robert 

Armstrong of the Bluff’ was the amount due in wages to the deceased, and that the watches 

of silver. Estimated value of James's property was finally set at no more than £28 11s 2d.

Again, ‘presumably by tumbling overboard’ seemed significant: how had the accident 

happened and why had there been no witnesses? Where was Crawford when his friend 

drowned? More information was needed on the Lotus - was she a harbour vessel, such as a dredger or a tug, or just temporarily at anchor in the Bay? It appeared that James was working aboard her in some artisan capacity, probably, like Crawford, as a carpenter, considering the

‘chest of tools’ in the inventory. Robert Armstrong ‘of the Bluff’ was evidently Captain of the 

Lotus and held wages owing to Donaldson. This did not point towards a ship simply passing

through the port.

Time to go back to NAAIRS and search on the Lotus. Several references came to light which

not only showed the vessel to have been a brig but also the reason why she required repairs.

On 10 August 1880, four ships, including the Lotus, had been moored at the Screw Moorings

in the Bay ‘when the wind veered to SW and the moorings drew out of the bottom. The 

Northern Belle and Rosebud consequently ‘drove athwart hawse of the Umzinto and the 

Lotus’ at the adjacent set of moorings, all four vessels colliding and being driven on to the 

Bank with resultant damage. The Umzinto's figurehead was smashed and split, the Rosebud 

had several iron stanchions on her port as well as on her starboard side broken and bent, and 90 feet of iron railing buckled. The Northern Belle got off more lightly, while the Lotus had the iron work of the martingale* broken, the cutwater** split and the bowsprit shroud*** plus some railings 

on the starboard side carried away. Alexander Airth, Port Captain, reported all the above after personal inspection and by 13 August the vessels had been taken off the Bank. Presumably 

they were moved to other moorings, where James Donaldson apparently assisted with the 

repairs to the Lotus.

It still didn't answer the question of why he should have drowned - and why no-one seemed 

sure at first that this was the case. However, from the estate papers we know that there was a funeral, so a body must have been recovered. There was a strong possibility that a newspaper report of the incident could have appeared, or even mention of an enquiry into the death. 

Since an exact date was known, a newspaper search was feasible. It wasn't until 13 

September 1880 that three brief lines, all but hidden in the general news column of the Natal Mercury, provided James's only ‘obituary’:

‘James Donaldson, of Banff, a carpenter, working for some time on board the Lotus, was 

found drowned in the harbour on Wednesday.’

At least James's trade was firmly established. There was no mention of cause of death, 

whether accidental, suicide or foul play, neither was there any sign of a subsequent inquiry. 

James could have slipped, perhaps hit his head,and fallen overboard, though strange that 

no-one noticed and that it took some time to ascertain. Suicide might not be ruled out - a 

young man far from home and family, trying to eke out a living on a minimal wage, could 

have been depressed or even desperate. Robert Armstrong, his employer, was known to be 

very hard on his labour, as archival references show.

The fact remains that James Donaldson had, ironically enough, journeyed all the way from the

edge of the wild North Sea to drown off a ship at anchor in the waters of the Bay of Natal. The 

story emphasises that even in the 1880s people leaving for the colonies might be saying 

goodbye to their place of origin and to their nearest and dearest forever.

Donaldson family ca 1875:
James, 19, at the back

John Crawford was incorrect in his statement that James's 

parents were ‘still alive’. George Donaldson, James's father,

a farm servant and carter, had died in 1877 at the age of 47 in

a fall from his cart one February night. James's mother had been

left with six children, the youngest only nine, to rear alone - she had lost 7-month-old twins through whooping cough in 1868. They were an unlucky family. 

It is evident that neither John Crawford nor Donaldson himself 

had visited Scotland in the recent past or were aware of 

George Donaldson's death three years prior to James's

drowning. It is also clear that Crawford's intentions of returning his friend's belongings to the Donaldson family may have been sincere, but are unlikely to have been carried out given that 

the cost of a passage would have been beyond Crawford's means. Yet the news of James's passing must have filtered through to Banff by mail to be commemorated accurately on the family memorial stone. Perhaps John Crawford can't be blamed for appropriating James's few assets and cash - £10 for the funeral would have been an enormous expense for a ship's carpenter.

The sequence of events doesn't end there. On 2 December 1880, a memo to the Natal 

Harbour Board requests permission for the use of ‘Dynamite in breaking up ... the remains of 

the ship Lotus now lying on the Island beach’ and mentions that ‘an experienced hand ... one 

of Nobel & Co.'s men’ was to undertake the work. Why, if the ship was in such a bad

state that it was eventually broken up, had anyone first bothered to try and repair her? The statement of Port Captain Airth in August, after the collision of the four vessels at the moorings, didn't seem to indicate major damage to the Lotus.

For good measure, a red herring arose during the newspaper search, in the shape of another

vessel named Lotus This caused some confusion, but the fact that this ship, from Adelaide, 

was commanded by a Captain Little and left Natal bound for London in November 1880 

whereas Armstrong's Lotus was due for the dynamite treatment in December of that year, 

proves that these were two entirely different vessels, coincidentally at Natal at the same

time, the Australian Lotus merely passing through.

If your ancestor was presumed, or certainly, drowned but no trace of him appears in UK 

maritime records, he may have met a fate similar to James Donaldson's, in one of the 

colonies. James's descendant was amazed at the wealth of detail which emerged from South African archival and other sources, enabling her at last to answer the question prompted by

that memorial inscription thousands of miles away in Scotland.

*     Rope for tying down the jib boom

**    Forward edge of prow

***   Bowsprit, the spar running out from the ship's stem, to which forestays are fastened; 
shroud, a set of ropes forming part of standing rigging, and supporting mast.

Acknowledgement

Elizabeth Gabriel

Souvenir Saturday: the Piers at Durban ca 1880s

Vetch's Pier area and shipping ca 1880s

Maritime employees at Natal 1874: is your ancestor among them?

At this date Thomas Gadsden (my great grandfather) was Lighthouse Keeper at the Bluff Light at 125 pounds per annum. His brother-in-law, Douglas William Bell was Assistant Keeper at 100 pounds. Both men occupied living quarters near the lighthouse. Alexander Airth was then Port Captain. Gadsden and Airth did not always see eye to eye. 

Tidewaiter: He was a customs official who checked goods upon the landing of a vessel, to ensure payment of duties. Depending on the size of the port and the volume of shipping there might be several tidewaiters in attendance.

The position was open to abuse by the tidewaiters themselves, bribery and corruption could occur. Mostly, however, they were honest men earning a not particularly high income, hours were inconvenient and there could be risks involved.

Natal Almanac 1874

Maritime Natal, its problems and its people

The steam tug Pioneer can be seen to the left of the photo, flag flying astern,ca 1860.

One encouraging event at Port Natal was the arrival of the tug Pioneer in 1859, the first steam tug in Africa. This acquisition, recommended by Milne, was used to tow a 'rake' across the bar at ebb tide. It sounds rather a Heath-Robinson notion but dragging the heavy rake across the  bottom disturbs the sand, the ebb tide carrying it out to sea. The Pioneer was fairly small but when the more powerful tug, Forerunner, was put into service it had a significant effect. It was however not enough to deepen the channel.

There were those in the Colony who were opposed to opening a channel e.g. the owners of the lighters that unloaded the ships in the outer anchorage and charged high fees for doing so. A deeper channel would mean loss of their livelihood.

Between the departure of Milne from the Harbour Works's stage several engineers tried their own ideas, largely unsuccesfully, to solve the entrance channel problem. They included Captain Vetch (the remains of whose pier can still be seen), James Abernethy, Sir John Coode, and C W Methven. The only obvious result was that Natal's treasury became depleted. Apathy set in, despite the increased volume of shipping due to the Zulu War and the First Anglo-Boer War. Edward Innes was appointed Harbour Engineer in 1881 and started to drive piles for the continuation of Milne's North Pier, believing, like Milne, in tidal scour being the answer to the entrance difficulties.

Innes unfortunately died in 1887 at the early age of 34. Was there a curse on the port and all connected with it? Innes's friend and colleague Charles Crofts carried on Innes's work capably but depths of water over the Bar had increased only marginally. Methven was brought in, and dredgers were acquired and put to work. By 1904 the fleet of dredgers at Durban was the largest in the world. There was the Platypus, the Water Rat, the Otter, the Beaver, the Sand Piper and two hoppers, the William Bell and the John Milne (too little too late these memorials to the men concerned).

Acknowledgement: African Keyport, Capt Tony Pearson

Maritime Natal: John Milne and the Harbour Works

'In 1856 the Harbour Works were progressing under the patient application of John Milne, C. E., who in the existing state of the Colonial Revenue was expected to make bricks without straw', says George Russell in his History of Old Durban.

First Milne had to construct a wooden tram-line round the Bluff to the Cave Rock to obtain the necessary stone and afterwards boat it across for his works. This was done by two contractors, William Campbell and Richard Godden, with African labour and they did it well for their skilled handiwork was later recognisable in the root of the North Pier, every stone hand-dressed and packed. 

Milne was constantly about the Bay with flags, buoys and labour, and gave plenty of exercise to the Port Captain, his boat and crew, in soundings

'The crests of the sea at high tides would break over in streamlets from the Back Beach ... to the Custom House Channel, and it was his aim ... to compel the forces of Nature to the success of his design. His main project was to carry out a North Pier to the Bar with a short South Pier opposite, gradually narrowing the entrance and facilitating scour. He employed the fragments of labour and funds doled out to him in wattling the sandhills from Captain Bell's house to the Point, with a series of rough fences divided into sheepfold-like paddocks, to divert and retain the drifting sands from entering the Bay. These sands were then secured by planting the Hottentot Fig or any green thing that would grow there.' 

Milne's heart was in his work and he was always on duty. He would be seen wearing a long Nankeen coat and broad Manila hat, walking-staff in hand.

The Bluff with the remains of Milne's North Pier in
foreground. There was no lighthouse until 1867.

John Milne was born in 1802 Kincardine, Scotland, a civil engineer who had worked on harbours such as Leith and Inverkeithing in his home country before emigrating to Natal on the Dreadnought in 1849. A widower, he was accompanied by his daughter Jessie. Jessie married a soldier, Captain Robertson, who was later wounded in India in 1857 and died in 1861. Subsequently, Jessie married Captain William Michael Tollner. Her 2nd husband Tollner’s Death Notice gives her maiden name as Robertson, which is misleading and emphasises the necessity for checking sources. 

Milne had his critics (including the influential George Cato) and by 1858 he was no longer harbour engineer at Durban. He died in 1877.


Acknowledgements: George Russell: History of Old Durban;
Delyse Brown, family information.

Maritime Adventures at Natal 5: more shipwrecks in Capt Bell's time

Records show that no less than 66 large ships were lost on Back Beach between December 1845 and December 1885 with the loss of thirty lives. One result of the number of wrecks up to 1863 was public anger over the lack of a lighthouse on the Bluff. This was fuelled by the loss of the Sebastian and the Earl of Hardwicke in a gale on 26 September 1863.

Among other shipwrecks during Bell’s tenure as Port Captain were:

Fusilier – British ship wrecked on the Bluff Rocks at the south entrance to the harbour on 25 May 1865 in a north-east wind while on a voyage from Calcutta to Demerara (British Guiana) with Indian workers. Loss of 20 souls.

Annabella – British barque wrecked on what became known as the Annabella Bank at Durban on 21 January 1856, carrying cargo. There was no loss of life, but a public enquiry was demanded. It was this wreck which, perhaps unfairly, led to the dismissal of harbour engineer John Milne.

Ariosto – American barque wrecked on Back Beach on 31 July 1854 while on a voyage from Sumatra to Boston with a cargo of pepper. No loss of life.

British Tar – only three months after the Minerva disaster another Byrne ship (282 tons)  wrecked on Back Beach on 29 September 1850 during an east-north-east gale with a general cargo. No loss of life but the settlers lost everything, like those on the Minerva.

Pioneer – wrecked on Back Beach near Annabella Bank on 23 Oct 1862 when her cables parted after a voyage from London with a cargo of timber for the harbour works. No loss of life. [Natal Mercury 24, 28 Oct, 1862]

Queen - British brig wrecked near Vetch’s Pier on 16 August 1863 when her cables parted in a north-east wind after voyage from London. No loss of life. She lies close to the Lord Geo Bentinck (wrecked 1861). [Natal Mercury 18 Aug 1863]

Sebastian - British wooden barque of 364 tons wrecked on Back Beach on 26 Sept 1863 during north-east gale after voyage from London with immigrants and general cargo. No lives lost.

When the American barque Ariosto 361 tons was wrecked on the Back Beach, Durban, on 31 July 1854 while on her way to Boston from Sumatra, carrying a cargo of pepper, a local Byrne settler, William Hartley, saw an opportunity. He knew that pepper did not deteriorate when wet and he dried out the peppercorns then sold them at a satisfactory profit.

The Captain (Balch) had mistakenly kept the ship on course believing their position to be some miles from the Bluff. The sound of breakers alerted the deck watch but it was too late. The vessel struck, bumping over the Bar, and ended up on the beach. The crew of 17 landed in their boat. The ship became a total wreck but no lives were lost. Durban's inhabitants rushed to the scene and William Hartley began to have ideas about the cargo.

Ariosto wreck 1854

Souvenir Saturday: the mail steamers to Natal

Sister to the Armadale Castle, built on the Clyde, the Kenilworth Castle was built in Belfast. That yard had produced the Norman and her successors for the Union Company. In October 1900 the new Cape mail contract had come into force, the first to be performed by the Union Castle Line, It was the start of a great shipping era and thousands of our ancestors sailed to and from the Cape and Natal on these mail steamers. The arrival and departure of the mailship was a matter for public celebration then, with streamers being thrown between ship and dock and a festival air pervading the port.

In those days the mail steamers would leave Southampton on Saturday afternoons at 5 pm reaching Table Bay at dawn on Tuesday. After proceeding up the coast to Durban they were scheduled to leave Cape Town homeward bound on Wednesday afternoon at four o'clock. A new arrangement came into being in September 1913 when steamers would leave Cape Town for England at 1 pm on Saturday afternoons. The outbreak of war in 1914 upset all sailing schedules until the end of 1919 when Friday afternoon departures at both ends became the norm.

The earliest mail steamers hadn't proceeded farther than Cape Town. It was only in 1863 that the Union Line began sending its vessels as far as Algoa Bay. After 1876 East London was the terminal port then at last in August 1887 the ships were sent to Durban. Early in 1888 the Castle mail steamers which had before turned round at East London now made Durban their terminal port.

All was not plain sailing. A coastal journey was a nightmare especially for passengers going to Natal where the dreaded Bar made arrival or departure a matter of uncertainty and adventure.

'The method of crossing the Bar was by means of cargo lighters which were hauled along on runners on a stout hawser securely anchored outside the rollers. Passengers were battened down in the hold and most were seasick, Not the least exciting episode was transferring from steamer to lighter and when the rolling became pronounced it required all the agility of a trained acrobat to get from one to the other.'

The conquest of the Durban Bar is a story in itself. Victory was achieved in 1904 when the RMS Armadale Castle, Captain Robinson in command, despite battling a south-westerly gale, steamed proudly through the harbour entrance and was soon berthed alongside the wharf. From that time the crossing of the Bar held no terrors for passengers landing or embarking at Durban.

Souvenir Saturday: Bill Gadsden in Durban High School Group 1880s

                                     From 'The Durban High School Record 1866-1906'

One evening my uncle arrived at our family home unexpectedly bearing a leather-bound volume entitled The Durban High School Record. The book was in poor condition but all the pages were there. He triumphantly pointed out a group photograph entitled The School in the Eighties and drew our attention to a name in the caption: 'Bill Gadsden'. My father was the only 'Bill Gadsden' I'd ever known or heard of - and he certainly wasn't around in the 1880s, having been born in 1910.

His father was Sydney Bartle Gadsden, born in 1880, and not a contender for the 'Bill' in the photo.

This was the beginning of a search for the unknown Bill Gadsden who had attended the Durban High School during the 1880s. For a start, the caption of the photo was not helpful in identifying which boy was meant to be Bill Gadsden - the rows are made up of inconsistent numbers of boys and masters and there are some missing names. However, it seems likely that Bill Gadsden is 4th from the right in the 3rd row - the 3rd row from the front, that is, ignoring the rows' numbering given in the caption.

This Bill Gadsden, as research was to prove, was my grandfather's brother, William Gadsden of whom my father had no prior knowledge. The brother had never been mentioned in the family and the only two of my grandfather's siblings of whom my father knew were his father's sisters, Faith and Hope.

After the loss of my grandfather's parents he and his sisters were farmed out to various families until the children reached adulthood. It's possible they never saw their brother William who on leaving school was employed as an apprentice on the Natal Harbour Works, later apparently moving to Verulam on the North Coast of Natal where he worked as a carpenter. He married and had one daughter. My father had had no idea this young man existed and was astonished to see the photograph and to hear the results of my research into our mystery family member. To begin with my father was sceptical and found it hard to believe my grandfather wouldn't have spoken of such a close relation. Still, the brothers must have grown apart with the break up of the family and growing up in different foster homes. Whether there were other causes of estrangement remains unknown.

We must also consider that William died in his early twenties - 24 - of enteric fever (a common cause of death in colonial Natal resulting from impure drinking water) on 22.12.1900 at Verulam, Natal. He was probably buried at Verulam cemetery; his grave has so far not been found. His death notice refers to him as Colonial Englishman. My father William Bell Gadsden was born ten years after his uncle's death and remained unaware that there was a widow and a daughter - a first cousin - living not far away from the rest of the Durban Gadsdens.

William attended the Durban Boys' High School from 1888-1892. His address during that time was 'The Point, Durban'. His father was then employed by the Natal Harbour Works.

The Natal Witness carried a brief announcement of William's birth thus:

Gadsden 18-July-1876 (date of event), 28-July-1876 (date of advert) at the Bluff the wife of Mr Thomas Gadsden of a son. 

Thomas Gadsden's wife was Eliza Ann Bell, daughter of Port Captain William Bell. The couple lost a son named Phillip born in 1879; there is a record of Phillip's baptism at St Paul's Church, Durban. 

More Maritime Adventures: James Ramsay Caithness

James Ramsay Caithness was Captain William Bell's brother-in-law and was also a mariner. Not a very fortunate one as he seemed to go through a number of crises with the various ships he commanded. However, he was an interesting man and one whom we can track through news reports and other sources precisely because his ships were prone to disaster, references frequently being picked up in newspapers from much further afield. In this instance, the news concerns Caithness's schooner (also referred to as a brigantine*), the Prairie, stranded near Rocky Cape, Tasmania.

Rocky Cape, Tasmania: beautiful but dangerous

Although previously mentioned in this blog, the Prairie story bears repeating. It reveals some of the risks faced by the mariner during the days of sail. 

People's Advocate, Launceston, 15 June,1856

This vessel James Ramsay Caithness, master, sailed from the Cape of Good Hope for Melbourne on the 25th March. There were on board nine passengers and a crew of eleven. The lading consisted of wine, oats, flour, raisins and other Cape produce. During the voyage she encountered extremely stormy weather, during which the boats were staved, the bulwarks much damaged, the water-casks staved and displaced, and the head rail on one side entirely carried away. After repairing damages as efficiently as possible she proceeded on her voyage but again encountered a violent gale off Cape Ottway on the night of the 26th May when she was dismasted and in imminent danger. The weather still contrary and the dismantled state of the vessel rendered navigation perilous in the extreme. It was necessary in order to save life and property to run her on shore at Sisters' Creek - between Rocky Cape and Emu Bay - which was successfully effected on the 2nd June. She now lies on the beach where she ran on shore. The owner, captain and some of the crew, arrived here on Saturday night per the Titania.

It was reported that 'the ship was but little injured and might be got off after discharging the cargo', but this proved over-optimistic. James and some of the crew, who had had to resort to camping on the beach, were taken from the site of the wreck by the Titania and there would have been time to reflect bitterly on another lost ship and the costs thereof. The stranded cargo on the beach near Rocky Cape would be sold at public auction. The voyage had taken over three months. Meanwhile, back home at the Cape of Good Hope, Eliza Caithness was soldiering on, caring for five boys aged ten and under.






*the term brigantine now usually means a vessel with the foremast square rigged and the mainmast fore-and-aft rigged, without any square sails. Historically, this rig used to be called a schooner brig.

Maritime Adventures at Natal 4 : Luna and Theresina

At the port of Durban numerous lives were saved by means of the rocket apparatus, fired from the 'rocket house' on shore to vessels in distress. A case in point was that of the Luna, a British brig commanded by Captain Grube which was wrecked on the Back Beach on 2 September 1880. She had sailed from London. Her cables parted during a south east gale - the story of many a ship at this port.

The entire crew survived the wreck, being brought ashore after use of the rocket apparatus.

Another ship whose crew were rescued in this way was the Theresina, a British brigantine wrecked on the Back Beach on 9 April 1878 after a voyage from London. A similar incident occurred on 2 August 1878 when the American barque H.D. Storer parted her cables and ended up on the beach after a voyage from New York.

These unfortunate events were the direct result of ships lying in the roadstead as they were not able to enter the port because conditions over the bar were adverse at the time. Various harbour engineers attempted to solve the problem of the bar.

British harbour experts had to rewrite the text book on tidal scour. Massive breakwaters, exposed to the furies of the sea, had to be constructed. Tidal power is an untiring force of nature. But when there is a never-ending stream of sand passing a harbour entrance, tidal action becomes an engineering nightmare. There was only one solution: persistent dredging.