Page 114 - Bulletin 13 2009

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Family legend has it that like many other young couples in Europe the Ladans were
thinking of leaving for a better life. An uncle, recently returned from South Africa and

America, assured Louis that there was no finer place than the Cape. On this advice he

embarked on the Galician and arrived in Cape Town on Easter Sunday 12 April 1903.

While staying at the Grand Hotel with other immigrants fate played its hand. To quote his
own note: “While I was there someone came from R. M. Ross to enquire whether there

were any Mechanics among the new arrivals as they required them for construction work
on the ice plant at the Kalk Bay Fisheries. I took the job and am still at Kalk Bay therefore

I (Louis Ladan) am a burgher of Kalk Bay and always true to the Government.” He was to
live in Kalk Bay for the rest of his life. (Fig. 3.1).

The agreement he had made with his wife before leaving was that he would send for her if
he liked the place. He wrote to say he did like Kalk Bay and that they should take the next

available sailing. Being a sensible husband he also wisely mentioned to his wife that she

should bring some oil lamps as Kalk Bay was without electricity. The streets were lit with
oil lamps which were extinguished at 9 pm every night. So from the sophisticated Hague

with its comforts to rough-and-ready Kalk Bay his wife and daughter came – arriving safely
in 1904. (Fig. 3.2).

The company Louis had been employed by, the Kalk Bay Fish and Land Co., went

insolvent in 1907. Louis, a hard working business-like man, seems to have had no trouble

establishing himself in the growing village. An early picture of the Main Road shows his
sign ‘Louis Ladan General Blacksmith and Wagon Maker’. (Fig. 3.3). It was said that he

had set Adams up as a blacksmith but this seems unlikely as Adams was a blacksmith in
Kalk Bay before 1895. By 1907 Louis Ladan was listed as a plumber, living on the railway

line side of the Main Road between the Cold Storage Company and Kalk Bay station. The
only place this can be is the area that later became the station parking area and which, at

that time, was fully built up.