Page 50 - Bulletin 18 2014

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foresaw rail sidings running onto each quay so that fish could be loaded directly into trucks

destined for the interior markets developing at Kimberley and Johannesburg. He estimated
the whole scheme would cost £76,000, but this could be reduced to £50,000 if foreshore

reclamation was omitted and only the two breakwaters and one quay were built. The enclosed
area would still be 8.5 acres accommodating all the craft. In that case the long quay at the

southern end would provide sufficient space for landing fish and getting them to the railway.

Cathcart W Methven’s plan

The PWD then sought a second opinion and in June 1902 appointed a consulting harbour

engineer, Cathcart W Methven (1849 – 1925.) He was assisted by two PWD surveyors in
making an accurate survey of the approaches, inshore and foreshore areas. But in other

respects, like Westhofen, he had very little accurate local data on the natural forces such as

wind speed and direction, wave height, wave period, and orientation, and tidal range and
currents. So he worked from first principles, extrapolated from Simon’s Town records, and

drew on experience from his homeland, Scotland. He regarded Kalk Bay as similar to small
harbours there such as Fraserborough, Sandhaven and Portsey.

His harbour was smaller than Westhofen’s because he assumed that the PWD wanted simply

to accommodate the existing fleet in safety. It enclosed an area of 5 acres between a northern
and southern breakwater at the root of which was a reclaimed area with a slipway; another

slipway was proposed at the end of the breakwater. (Fig. 2.7.) Based on the Scottish

experience where roughly 40 boats were accommodated per acre - but the boats there were
twice the size of those at Kalk Bay - he anticipated a water area of 5 acres could easily

accommodate growth in the industry: either 200 big boats or 400 smaller KB ones, or some
intermediate number of them. He recommended the breakwaters be made of mass concrete

founded on rock with vertical sides to allow boats to come alongside, and he noted that this
had been done successfully at the small Scottish fishing harbours. He estimated the height of

waves during gales at 7 ft. 6 ins. (2.3 m) although local fishermen’s knowledge suggested

waves were larger than this. So, the main breakwater’s working surface should be 5 ft. above