Page 94 - Bulletin 7 2003

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the world as a crewman on two occasions before settling in Cape Town – at the same
time as the group of Italians mentioned earlier. So he could well have been one of the

single men. He met my mother at Hout Bay, probably where he was fishing, and
married her around 1908 at Christ Church in Constantia. He continued to work at

Hout Bay but later moved around to Rogge Bay which, by this time, must have been

crowded with the locals and the newcomers.

My mother told me she flecked haarders on the beach at Hout Bay for 9d per 100.
Kreef off the boats to agents went for 12/6d per 100 and if they were not large they

were not interested. Snoek went for 1d each off the boat – how did these poor people
survive? Perhaps it was necessary to resort to dirty tricks, a common way of beating

the law. I have never heard of shift fishing but must accept that it happened when we

hear of the number of fish these men brought in. Why did the locals not adopt the
same strategy? One Italian family I know used Granger Bay exclusively.

I was born in 1924 at which time my father was 45 years old. He had discontinued
fishing due to a heart ailment which made work impossible – he was an invalid but

able to get around by himself but was unable to do much. He died in 1937.

The Demise of Rogge Bay

From 1912 onwards there was mounting pressure from the Railways Administration

for control of the Rogge Bay beach area for rail expansion, and in 1917 the Rogge
Bay fishing industry was moved to the purpose-built New Fishing Harbour farther

north along the foreshore adjacent to the South Arm of the Victoria Basin. (Figs. 3.7
& 3.8). By this time sail-driven beach-boats were being replaced by larger, heavier,

motor-driven craft that required permanent moorings in deeper water. (Fig. 3.9).
Twenty years later, in 1937, the construction of the new Southern Scheme caused the

relocation of the industry yet again, this time to the Alfred Basin, which, with the

Victoria Basin, has been its home since that time.