After a remarkably fine passage of five days from Simon’s Town, the “Hermes” anchored off Port Natal on Wednesday, the 1st July, 1857.
In consequence of its having blown fresh from the northward and the eastward, the Bar was impassable, and we had no communication with the shore on that day, excepting by telegraph from the ship to the signal station on the Bluff; by means of which we informed the Natalians that there was an officer and thirty-three soldiers on board, and requested the authorities to send off boats to land this small party as soon as the Bar was practicable.
On Thursday the port boat, built as a life-boat, came alongside, but the Coxswain of her declined taking any passengers in consequence of the unsettled state of the Bar.
During Friday and Saturday the Bar was still impassable; and I was pleased to have a fair opportunity of seeing the outside of it and the coast-line at a time when the Bar was pronounced to be in a worse state than it had been in for many years.
The line of coast to the northward of Port Natal lies nearly N.E. and S.W. Along this coast-line the gulf stream sets about S.W., at a rate of from one mile and a half to four miles per hour, according as the stream is retarded or accelerated by the wind.
When the wind is anything to the southward of east, the southern terminus of the entrance of the harbour, which is a steep bluff, about a mile in extent, and running to the N.E., in a line nearly with the coast, effectually shelters the harbour; and the Bar at the entrance, having from eight to eleven feet of water on it, is passable, and the sea at such times does not break on the Bar.
As the wind draws more to the southward, it meets with the usual set of the current, and deflects it to the eastward from the mouth of the harbour, so that any detritus in solution is not at such times deposited at the mouth of the harbour.
On the other hand, when the wind is in that quarter of the compass from north to east, which it frequently is at Natal, the wind increases the velocity of the current, sometimes to as much as four miles per hour, and this accelerated current, setting down the coast, is arrested by the Bluff already referred to. The consequence is, that to the northward of this Bluff—which is the direct entrance into the harbour—all the detritus in solution, carried down by the stream, is deposited there; and, as the current passes along a sandy shore immediately before arriving at the Bluff, a great deposit of sand is the natural consequence; and the filling up of the entrance of the harbour of Port Natal would be the result. This is prevented by the scoure which takes place on the ebbing of the tide, augmented by the water of the river Umlas, which runs into Port Natal.
On the northern shore of the entrance of the harbour a pier has been commenced, extending seawards, and running somewhat parallel with the opposite shore of the entrance, which is the inner side of the Bluff. The object of this pier is to confine the channel, by which means it is hoped to increase the power of the scourage, and, with the assistance of a steam dredge, to keep the Bar clear; so as to have on it at all times twelve feet of water, while at high tides it is expected that there will be twenty-two feet.
At the time of our visit, Mr. Pilkington, the Engineer of the Cape colony, and Mr. Skeade, R.N., an able marine surveyor, were at Natal, examining the Bar and Harbour. What the nature of their report has been I do not know; but with the harbour before me, and the best admiralty chart, I came to the conclusion that to make Port Natal what it ought to be, the following plan should be adopted:—