Saldanha Bay
Encyclopedia
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, north west of Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. The town that developed on the northern shore of the bay, also called Saldanha
Saldanha
-Portugal:* Saldanha , a civil parish in the municipality of Mogadouro-South Africa:* Saldanha Bay, a natural bay in Western Cape, South Africa* Saldanha, Western Cape, a town on the northern shore of the bay...
, was incorporated with five other towns into the Saldanha Bay Local Municipality
Saldanha Bay Local Municipality
Saldanha Bay Municipality is a local municipality located within the West Coast District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2007, it had a population of 78982...
in 2000. The current population of the municipality is estimated at 72,000. The place is mentioned in the first edition of John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
's Two Treatises of Government
Two Treatises of Government
The Two Treatises of Government is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke...
as an example of the state of nature.
Saldanha Bay's location makes it a paradise for the watersport enthusiast, and its local economy being strongly dependent on fishing, mussels, seafood processing, the steel industry and the harbour. Furthermore its sheltered harbour plays an important part in the Sishen-Saldanha iron-ore project (connected by the Sishen-Saldanha Railway Line
Sishen-Saldanha Railway Line
The Sishen–Saldanha railway line, also known as the Ore Export Line, is an long heavy haul railway line in South Africa. It connects iron ore mines near Sishen in the Northern Cape with the port at Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape...
) at which Saldanha Steel
Saldanha Steel
Saldanha Steel is a South African steel company which was originally formed as a partnership between Iscor Limited and the Industrial Development Corporation...
takes center stage. With strong historic military links Saldanha is also host to a Naval training base and the South African Military Academy
South African Military Academy
The South African Military Academy is based on similar principles as that of the Military Academy system of the United States , and was established on 1 April 1950 under the auspices of the University of Pretoria, as a branch of the South African Military College in Voortrekkerhoogte...
. The SAS Saldanha Nature Reserve offers a display of wildflowers during late winter and spring while Southern Right Whales also visit the waters in and around the nature reserve. The area has a Mediterranean climate but the annual rainfall is quite low; it verges on the desert region of Namaqualand
Namaqualand
Namaqualand is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of 170,000 square miles/440,000 km². It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions - Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the...
.
Saldanha Bay is named after António de Saldanha
António de Saldanha
António de Saldanha was a Castilian-Portuguese 16th century captain. He was the first European to set anchor in what is now called Table Bay, South Africa, and made the first recorded ascent of Table Mountain.- Background :...
, captain of a vessel in Albuquerque's
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
fleet which visited South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1503. The name was first given to Table Bay
Table Bay
Table Bay is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named because it is dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain.Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to explore this...
, where Saldanha's ship cast anchor. On Table Bay being given its present name in 1601, the older appellation was transferred to the bay now called after Saldanha. In 1781 a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone seized six Dutch East Indiamen
Battle of Saldanha Bay (1781)
The Battle of Saldanha Bay was a naval action that occurred off the Dutch Cape Colony on 21 July 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Five Dutch East India Company vessels were captured and another was destroyed by a squadron of Royal Navy warships under the command of commodore George...
, which, fearing an attack on Cape Town, had taken refuge in Saldanha Bay. This was the only achievement, so far as South Africa was concerned, of the expedition despatched to seize Cape Town during the war of 1781-1783.
The port developed into a modern harbour only recently, when it became necessary to facilitate the export of iron ore from the Northern Cape
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
. This required the construction of a railway more than 800 kilometres to the mines at Sishen
Sishen
Sishen is a town in Northern Cape, South Africa. It is the location of a large iron ore mine.- Transport :The mine is connected to the port of Saldanha Bay by the Sishen-Saldanha Railway Line. The line is electrified at 50 kV AC and the trains using this line are amongst the heaviest trains in the...
in the Northern Cape
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
and the construction of a deepwater jetty in Saldanha Bay to accommodate Capesize
Capesize
Capesize ships are cargo ships originally too large to transit the Suez Canal . To travel between oceans, such vessels used to have to pass either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. In effect Capesize reads as "unlimited"...
ore carrier ships.
See also
- Battle of Saldanha Bay (1781)Battle of Saldanha Bay (1781)The Battle of Saldanha Bay was a naval action that occurred off the Dutch Cape Colony on 21 July 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Five Dutch East India Company vessels were captured and another was destroyed by a squadron of Royal Navy warships under the command of commodore George...
- Battle of Saldanha Bay (1796)Battle of Saldanha Bay (1796)The designation Battle of Saldanha Bay refers to the surrender without a fight of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic under the command of Rear-Admiral Engelbertus Lucas to a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral George Elphinstone at Saldanha Bay on August 17,...
- Saldanha manSaldanha manSaldanha man also known as Saldanha cranium or Elandsfontein cranium are fossilized remains of a hominid species believed to be Homo heidelbergensis. The remains were found in Elandsfontein, located in the Saldanha Bay of South Africa....
External links
- A brief military history of the Saldanha Bay area by Lt Col Ian van der Waag.