Episode 91 – An early history of Port Natal and its treacherous sand bar

It’s the steamy coast of south east Africa 1824, Port Natal to be exact.

It’s now called eThekweni from the Zulu word for port itheku, although some say it is actually from the word emateku meaning the one-testicled thing. It of course was not a port during pre-settler times and original and ancient local name for this bay was isiBubulungu – that was what locals called it in 1824 - isiBubulungu means membership.
So I suppose we could call it eThekweni iNatali just for fun.
To further complicate the nomenclature, Port Natal was not a port back in 1824, it was a bay with a swooping sandy beach and a dangerous bar across its entrance that produced huge standing waves.
People have lived near this bay for more than 100 000 years, and the last people before the settlers arrived were pre-Zulu. Then in 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed up the coast from the south and called the whole coastline Natal which means Christmas in Portuguese. That’s because it was the Christmas period as he passed Natal trying to find the most direct route to the spice islands and India.
Sailing back and forth along this part of the coast were traders. By 1824 ships such as the Leven, Barracouta and Cockburn were captained by Captain WFW Owen who had taken to the region. Others were Commodore Nourse, who was commander at Simon’s town and who’d headed off in 1822 in the Andromache to meet Owen.
These were adventurers who wanted to make their names and fortune from this unique part of the world. Nourse’s brother Henry heard of their tales and being well off, decided to sponsor an upcoming business venture to Port Natal.
By March 1823 Owen was back in Delagoa Bay and bumped into a ship called the Sincapore from Calcutta, and the Orange Grove owned by Henry Nourse. Owen’s crew began to die from malaria, and he left after press ganging 12 black crew from the nearby villages. It was a thousand kilometer trip to Port Elizabeth, when Owen met up with two more ships that are to feature in the story of Port Natal.
One was the Jane, the other, the Salisbury. There is an island in Durban harbour which is called Salisbury island and named after this ship. The Salisbury’s captain was James Saunders King, a crucial character in our tale.
These two, Farewell and King, formed a tight pair speculating on possible maritime business. They had bought a 400 ton ship called the Princess Charlotte, then sold it earning a profit. A third character in this part of our story – a man who was to marry into the Zulu clans and whose family now dominate part of KwaZulu Natal, Henry Francis Fynn, pops up. Fynn and Farewell chartered the Salisbury from King, and began to sail between Rio de Janeiro, the West Indies, Mauritius.