RESIDENCE AT THE CAPE.—REMARKS ON THE ADVANTAGES OF SIMON’S BAY AS A NAVAL STATION.—PLANS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE LIBERATED NEGROES.—RAPID FAILURE OF LADY BRENTON’S HEALTH AND HER DEATH.—REFLECTIONS ON IT EXTRACTED FROM HIS PRIVATE JOURNAL.
Three years had elapsed after the last capture of the Cape of Good Hope, before it was considered necessary to have a resident Commissioner there. Captain Shield was selected for this purpose, and a fitter, or more efficient man could not have been found. With a sound judgment, and the utmost integrity, and undeviating correctness; he possessed an activity of mind, and indefatigable perseverance that never perhaps was exceeded. His official correspondence, which Sir Jahleel Brenton found in the office, was invaluable to him, and rendered his way clear under all the complexity in which he was involved by the transactions, which in the ultimate establishment of the dock-yard he was engaged in with the military and civil branches of the Government.
The Dutch, while masters of the Cape, aware of the insecurity of Table Bay during the winter months, when it is exposed to the fury of the whole Southern Atlantic, had been in the habit of sending their ships for shelter to Saldahna Bay; overlooking, or perhaps purposely concealing the value of Simon’s Bay; lest it might afford to an enemy the facility of landing and attacking the colony. Commissioner Shield viewed this bay with a seaman’s eye, and at once pronounced it to be the only place on the coast for a Naval Arsenal, and gave this opinion to the Navy Board, as soon after his arrival as he could obtain the means of forming it.
The Dutch had a few storehouses there for the use of their Batavia ships, but everything was upon the smallest scale, and the Admiralty on being convinced by the representation of Commissioner Shield of the fitness of Simon’s Bay for the establishment of a dock-yard, directed the Naval Establishment to be removed there, which was accordingly done in 1814; a Naval Hospital being previously built, and plans agreed upon for the extension of other Naval buildings.
Commissioner Shield being called to the Navy Board in 1813, was succeeded by Commissioner Dundas, from Bombay, who retained the situation but a short time, as he died at Simon’s Town in August, 1814.
Sir Jahleel Brenton, on inspecting the two bays, Table Bay and Simon’s Bay, entirely concurred with Commissioner Shield upon the expediency of giving up the former altogether; but recommended, that on surrendering the buildings there to the Colonial Government it should be with the understanding, that if required at any future period of war, they should be again restored to the Naval Department.
Whilst the dock-yard was in Table Bay, no ship could venture to strip her lower masts, or heave down, from the uncertainty of the weather and the rapidity with which a gale succeeds a calm, and the glassy surface is changed into a tremendous sea rolling in upon a dead lee shore. The loss of the Sceptre there in 1795, and of several large merchant vessels in the course of the seven years which Sir Jahleel Brenton passed there, are evident proofs of the dangers incurred almost at all seasons of the year in this bay; whereas in Simon’s Bay, scarcely an instance occurred during the whole of that time of a vessel driving from her anchors. Indeed the one only case was that of the Revolutionaire, parting a cable that had rotted in India, and falling on board the Zebra, carrying her adrift, with the wind immediately off one part of the bay, and driving on shore on the opposite side in a sandy cove under the block house, from whence they were both got off, the Revolutionaire much damaged from having passed over a ledge of rocks. But soon after the moorings were laid down for two ships of the line, and as many frigates, and no accidents afterwards occurred. It was found, however, that these were inconvenient, as they occupied too large a portion of the bay, which is not very extensive, and on that account they have since been removed.
When it was decided that the only Naval Establishment at the Cape should be in Simon’s Bay, the new buildings were carried on with great energy, and it soon became a place of considerable importance. A jetty was formed in the dock-yard: a spacious mast house erected, with a working sail loft over it, and a very ornamental range of houses for the officers of the yard constructed upon a terrace overlooking the bay, and the whole yard enclosed with a wall, forming a remarkably neat and compact arsenal.
Soon after the arrival of Sir Jahleel Brenton as Commissioner of the dock-yard at the Cape of Good Hope, a vessel arrived with the account of Buonaparte having escaped from Elba, and of war being revived in Europe. The consequences of this short war had a very material influence upon the colony of the Cape, as the transfer of the great prisoner to St. Helena caused a great demand upon the Cape for supplies of all descriptions, and excited amongst the wine growers and farmers a degree of energy quite foreign to the habits of the Dutch colonists, and to which nothing but English capital, and English example could probably ever have stimulated them.