Giant waves, a glorious coastline and a treasure chest of historical detail and fantastic adventure are just some of the elements of a new maritime book on the Wild Coast.
Navigating South Africa’s Wild Coast — A Transkei Maritime Story is the latest work from Bay author, researcher, publisher and photographer Colin Urquart and on this occasion he has shared the writing with his wife Lynette.
Urquart said on Friday they had delved back through the centuries to the earliest human activity on the Wild Coast and taken the story through to include some of the latest maritime incidents and issues.
“We go back to the Khoi, the hunter-gatherer people who first inhabited this coast, and then follow the subsequent stories of ivory hunters, missionaries, traders, soldiers and the new age of tourism.”
He said coastal sea trade had expanded from the Cape towards Natal and boat captains had begun seeking safe anchorage in or just off the various rivers along the Wild Coast, to land and ship cargo.
“The wild seas and rocky shores continued to take their toll and the bones of many vessels lie hidden along this coast.
“We tell some of the little-known stories of shipwreck survivors and we look at the phenomenon of the giant wave in which weeks of easterlies cause long troughs and then gale-force westerlies push against this flow.
“These rogue waves have featured in a number of shipwrecks off the Wild Coast including, it is thought, in the famous disappearance of the British passenger/cargo ship Waratah in 1909.”
Urquart said he had started his love affair with the Wild Coast when he visited the area for the first time as a photographer working for the Eastern Province Herald to cover the 1977 floods.
“My time there and my interest in maritime matters came together in 1996 when the Cordigliera sank off Port St Johns and I was part of the team that helped rescue the African penguins affected by the oil slick from the wreck all the way down here in Algoa Bay.”
He said Navigating the Wild Coast was the product of years of research that had been hampered by the closure six years of the Africana section of Gqeberha’s main library, for refurbishment.
“We continued to get great assistance from Africana librarian Carol Victor but still we had to think of other ways to get the facts.
“I turned to the internet but also spent a lot of time talking to residents from the Transkei as well as maritime experts and going through material that they sent me.
“However, at a certain point I got bogged down with too much research and Lynette had to help me to organise it.”
Navigating South Africa’s Wild Coast is highly readable and packed with stories so the history is never dry.
The writing is interspersed with interesting maps, photographs and drawings, including one of survivors of the United East India Company gunship Grosvenor — that went down off Lambasi Bay south of Mkambati on August 4 1782 — crossing the Alexandria Dunes in Algoa Bay.
There’s a useful fold-out map of the whole Wild Coast at the end of the book and a 14-page list of all the vessels that foundered off the Wild Coast and brief details as to what happened and when.
Urquart moved from his initial career as a press photographer to publishing, research and writing with the focus initially on the offshore islands of Algoa Bay and the Addo Elephant National Park and subsequently on maritime material.
He said he hoped people would find much of interest in Navigating the Wild Coast.
“I think they will learn something.
“Hopefully, also it will showcase what a beautiful place the Wild Coast is.”
HeraldLIVE
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