 Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | Table Bay Harbour – Duncan Docks HOLLANDSE AANNEMINGS MAATSKAPPY: Contractor | ||||
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Click to view large map Coordinates: | In the C19 various extensions were done to the Cape shoreline and schemes put forward for the enlargement of Table Bay Harbour. But only by the mid 1930s was there the requisite political will to promote and finance this challenging project. On 15 May 1935 the then Prime Minister, General JBM Hertzog, officially inaugurated the dredging operations. Within two years it was decided to go ahead with a comprehensive scheme involving the construction of a deep-water quay from the existing south arm of the Victoria Basin right across the City front to Woodstock Beach. The contract for the dredging and land reclamation, signed on 9 December 1937, was awarded to the Dutch firm, Hollandsche Aannemings Maatschappij (HAM). In charge of the operations was the Delft trained civil engineer Constantijn van Kretschmar van Veen (son of the former director of the NZASM, Jacob Adriaan VAN KRETSCHMAR VAN VEEN), who, prior to this, had been engaged in large harbour constructions in the Dutch East Indies (Surabaya) and at Walvis Bay (SWA, now Namibia) before settling in Cape Town from 1938 in until 1946, although he had visited in 1937 to acquaint himself with the prospects of the harbour project. War loomed in Europe and so it was with some relief that the Dutch firm, L Smit & Co, towed out a flotilla of approximately 35 Dutch vessels, which included a rock breaker, specialised dredgers, tugs, as well as cranes from the Netherlands to Cape Town in South Africa. These were employed for the difficult task of damming the open sea, dredging the basin and reclaiming the foreshore. In employ of the HAM were 60 Dutch and about six times as many South Africans – black, white, ‘coloured’ (as all then racially classified) - all approximately in equal numbers. From time to time the dredging was hindered or equipment damaged by submerged shipwrecks or metal fragments such as cannons and cannon balls, all lying on the ocean floor as jetsum from the wreckage wrought by the disastrous gales for which the Cape of Storms was named as well as other historical maritime disasters. These were of needs to be located and salvaged before construction could progress. The new basin, measuring 600m by 1800m, was merged with its forebear through the removal of the old breakwater. It was named Duncan Dock for the then Governor General, Sir Patrick Duncan. The outbreak of WW2 added a sense of urgency to the endeavor and in that time the new basin was put into partial use. The date for contractual completion was extended to 31 July 1945, not only for logistical but also for strategic reasons. (Extracted from Fisher 2021:199, 202). References:
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