Page 120 - Bulletin 7 2003

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Hottentot in Table Bay. A lot of trekking was done off Woodstock beach but mainly
for haarders.

The Nationalities

The numbers of fishermen were increased by deserters from ships and they would
have been mainly young single men. They were of various nationalities and I can

recall having seen many of them. The Portuguese had names like Gomez, Menezes
and Ferreira – a Ferreira owned a few boats eventually and then opened a barber

shop on the Main Road in the area of the Olympia Building. The original owner of
the café in the harbour, now known as Kalkies, was a Portuguese. Figaro was an

Italian, and there were those of English origin like Clarke, Clarence, and Fish – the

Fish’s tombstone still stands in the Holy Trinity graveyard. An Irish man named
Orgill was one of the leading skipper - owners in Kalk Bay and his sons and

grandsons were also top-class skippers. I have also known many fishermen who were

involved in the Donkergat whaling industry at Langebaan on the West Coast who
came to fish at Kalk Bay. The well-known skipper - owner Jimmy Edwards was of

English origin. He owned several boats most of which he named after the stars:
Morning Star, Lucky Star, Star of the Sea, and others.

There were also Filipinos – at least 30 – 40% of the Kalk Bay families had Filipino

forefathers, but there is a lot of conjecture about their origins. For example, I have

seen a photograph, in the flat of the Gella family, of a sailor in the naval uniform of
the USA. The sailor’s great-granddaughter told me that he was a Filipino sailor

aboard the American raider the Alabama. There are accounts of others who jumped
ship in Simon’s Town and over time were joined by increasing numbers of their

th
countrymen. By the late 19 century there is a profusion of family names of Spanish
origin in the Roman Catholic baptismal records which commence in 1874: Borez,

Damaso, de la Cruz, de Convallis, Estaclio, Fernandez, Garcia, Gomez, Hilario,

Pepino, and more. I have grown up with many of their off-spring. I have also known
one or two old women in my boyhood who were full-blooded Filipinos. One was

Granny Sompong whose husband was a full-blooded Filipino. And there was Granny