| |
|
|
Swakopmund Jetty - a history
|
 |
This page follows-on from the history of the
Swakopmund Mole. The difficulties that had been experienced with the rapid silting up of the
harbour area at the
Mole caused an urgent rethink of the way in
which the cargoes could be offloaded from the ships which anchored-off
one kilometre from the shore-line.
It was decided that a
wooden landing jetty should be constructed for the purpose
of off-loading the boats and rafts. On 25 Oct 1904 a team of sixty
soldier engineers of the 2nd Eisenbahnbaukompagnie
landed at Swakopmund
with the materials and began with the construction of
the jetty. The operation of securing the foundations and lower
braces of the pillars saw work teams being regularly swamped by the high
Atlantic surf. Working conditions were dangerous, difficult and
debilitating, but the tough engineers were racing against time as the
Mole harbour was rapidly silting up. They met their deadline and the Jetty
was commissioned 25 April 1905. It was 275m long and 9m wide. By
1907 the volume of goods being handled by the jetty warranted the
expenditure of not only extending the jetty by 50m but also widening it
a further 5m in order that the bulkier cargo could be handled
efficiently. During the early days of the colony shipping goods to
Swakopmund presented a major costing problem for there were no return loads for the
ships. It was as late as 1907 before the Otavi Copper Mine came into
production and the export of ore began,
and by 1911 the first blocks of Karibib dimension stone marble were
shipped through the port of Swakopmund.
|
|
2nd eisenbahnbaukompagnie |
The jetty with barge carrying horses ashore |
Unloading good |
Shipworm damage |
|
But
the jetty soon encountered its own problems as the foundations were
affected by spring tides. Also the marine ship-worm (Teredo navalis)
bored into the submerged wooden
beams, which had to be replaced at regular intervals, so it was
decided that a steel built jetty should replace the wooden one. The construction of the (steel) iron jetty, which commenced in 1912,
was contracted as a joint venture to the companies Flander A.G.,
Benroth and Grun & Bilfinger. The jetty was originally planned to
be 640m long, and stood on the south side of the wooden jetty. However
only 262 m of the steel jetty had been completed at the outbreak of
the Great War. Drilling and securing into the bedrock overcame
foundation problems. Two of the original ‘stamper’ drills bits of 63cm
and 93 cm across the chisel ends can be seen mounted on a pedestal at
the entry point to the jetty.
|
|
|
Steel alongside the wooden |
Massive construction cranes on the
jetty |
Following the 1934 floods inland |
|
The unusually heavy rains of 1934 resulted
in so much sand being washed
down the Swakop River that the shoreline was moved out past the end of
the jetty. It took several years for the shoreline to return to its' normal
position.
The Swakopmund Jetty soon became a
favourite with anglers and at times would literally bristle with fishing
rods. It was a popular walking place and from the end of the jetty you
could look back at to the coastline and see a panoramic view of
Swakopmund. However,
by 1983 and never having had any major
repairs done to it the jetty was considered unsafe. A ‘Save The Jetty’
fund managed to raise R300, 000. However this was insufficient to
complete the much needed repairs. Concrete pillars were placed around
some of the more corroded steel legs, but sadly the jetty was still
considered unsafe for pedestrian use.
The Municipality of Swakopmund recognized
the value of the Jetty to the town. Funds were eventually made available
and following extensive repairs about half of the jetty length was
in October 2006 opened to the delight of locals and tourists. The
north side of the jetty walk is reserved for anglers. Acknowledgements and further reading: A1, H5, H8, H11, M3, P2
|
|
|
Drill bits used for positioning
the jetty foundations |
Swakopmund Jetty Reopened in October 2006 |
|
| |
|
|
Local Area Attractions and Articles
of associated interest
|
|
►
Swakopmund Walk-About-Tour 1
►
Swakopmund Walk-About-Tour 2
► Martin Luther
►
Swakopmund a History 1
► Swakopmund a History 2
► Swakopmund
Town
►Swakopmund
Mole
► Swakopmund
Kaserne
►
Moon-Landscape
►Welwitschia-Plants
|
|
Did You Know
|
|
- The soldiers of the 2nd Eisenbahnbaukompagnie also built the
Kaserne in Bismarck St. The names of their 8 comrades who perished
while serving in Namibia can be seen on a plaque in the
entrance-hall.
|
|
