Get to know East London better (1)

At the beginning of June, it was exactly one year ago that we arrived in East London. Time flies, right! With that in mind, we also realised that we don’t really know this small city. One of the best ways to find out more about a place’s history is to visit the local museum.

And even if you don’t like museums, stay tuned because there are two very interesting stories you don’t want to miss!

Entrance to East London Museum

Before we came to East London, we knew of two major events that this city is known for (the sea was involved in both of these stories):

  • A Greek cruise liner (MTS Oceanos) sank in 1991 after leaving the port of East London. After a massive rescue operation, all 571 passengers and crew on board survived and none suffered serious injuries.
  • The coelacanth, a fish previously believed to be long extinct, was discovered near East London a few days before Christmas in 1938.

We were looking forward to reading more about these, but also other interesting stories about East London that we didn’t know about.

MTS Oceanos:

Even before entering the museum, we were distracted by a lifeboat next to the museum.

Lifeboat Number 5 from the ill-fated Oceanos

In gale-force winds and heavy seas all 571 aboard were saved before the Oceanos sank off the Transkei coast on 4 August 1991. 40 Survivors spent the night in this open lifeboat before being rescued by the ship MS Kaszuby II.

Photos depict the rescue operation, as well as the Oceanos finally disappearing under the water

There are so many wonderful stories told by the passengers. While some of the passengers were lowered into the sea in lifeboats, others had to jump off the sinking ship into the dark and stormy Indian Ocean. We also read about the brave South African Air Force personnel who lifted passengers from the deck, as well as other ships such as the MS Kaszuby II and the Dutch cargo ship Nedlloyd Mauritius who responded to the distress call.

Rock anchor near the Oceanos’ lifeboat

Inside the museum is another exhibit of the rescue operation and I have to admit, we were quite overwhelmed after reading most of the stories. We can completely understand why this is seen as a triumph and the greatest maritime rescue ever.

Just before we walked into the museum, we also saw artwork on the wall of a coelacanth skeleton and we couldn’t wait to read this remarkable story!

Artwork of coelacanth’s skeleton

East London being a coastal city, it’s understandable that we’ll see a lot of ships and ship-related stories. We first went to the lower ground where we did not see a ship, but some big guns that were on a ship.

Cannons that were found on the wreck of the Atalaia

On 20 January 1647, the Nossa Senhora da Atalaia sailed from Goa in India with a cargo of silk, porcelain, spices and a consignment of about 20 bronze Bocarro cannons. On 4 July 1647 the Atalaia was wrecked between Cefane and Cintsa (near East London).

After browsing through the history of ships that have sunk near the East London coast, we walked up to the next floor to see what awaited us there. And I was happy that we now found ourselves in the world of animals.

We were very surprised that our first sighting of an animal was that of a dodo, an extinct bird that lived in Mauritius. Why would it be on display here in the museum in East London?

A model of the extinct dodo

The reason for this: Apparently, the dodo was first discovered by Jacob Cornelius van Neck in 1601 in Mauritius. By 1693 the dodo was extinct. The egg (above photo) is possibly the only one in existence and was brought from Mauritius by Captain van Syker on 15 January 1847 and presented to Miss Lavinia Bean. She was the great aunt of the first director of the East London Museum.

We then walked past wonderful displays of animals found in the East London area. Not only were the model animals good imitations of the real animals, but the entire picture in each window was extremely well done.

Different species of penguins and a Cape Cormorant

Kingfishers and the little Wagtail (bottom right)

Male and female ostriches

Different antelopes, baboons and the bigger animals like rhinos and lions

The Coelacanth:

And then it was time to read the fascinating story of the coelacanth! We won’t bore you with all the details regarding this fish (google coelacanth if you want to read more). What makes this such a brilliant story is that prior to 1938 the coelacanth was a peculiar fish consigned to the paleontological record, thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago – wow!

The coelacanth. It was named Latimeria chalumnae (in honour of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer who was the curator of the East London Museum and saved the specimen for science)

On 22 December 1938 the coelacanth landed in the nets of a fishing trawler of Hendrick Goosen and was brought to the dock of East London. The then curator of the museum Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was called to see this strange looking fish. She described the fish as “beautiful” and said the fish’s natural colour of blue with white spots was rare to see.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer receiving the news of the coelacanth

Marjorie then called Rhodes University ichthyologist, Professor JLB Smith about the fish. He quickly realised that the fish caught was a scientific miracle.

Professor Smith and other people pose with the coelacanth

The world was amazed with the news of the existence of this ancient fish. Newspapers in South Africa had this story all over their front pages for weeks and we enjoyed reading some of the articles.

Newspapers from 1939 with the coelacanth story

It was only after 14 years that more coelacanths were recorded along the Grande Comore and Anjouan. Since then, this fish has made its appearance several more times, for example in 1991 along the Mozambique coast, in 1995 at South-West Madagascar and in 2000 at Sodwana Bay in South Africa.

Another model of the coelacanth

It was such a great story to read and as we walked up the stairs to another hall I looked back at the fish display and thought: It’s possible there might be a lot more in the sea that we’re not aware of.

Leaving the fish exhibition

We were now at the human section of the museum. Here we learned about the different groups and cultures that made the Eastern Cape Province their home over the centuries. This province is dominated by Xhosa speaking South Africans and we saw an exhibition of the traditional Xhosa family. The date of the arrival of the Xhosa speaking people is unknown, but it has been proven that they were at the Buffalo River in 1686.

Traditional Xhosa family

We also saw the German influence in this province with the sight of a lovely Spring wagon (Spider). It was bought in Frankfort, Germany and shipped to South Africa in the 1850s for the German settlers to use as a means of transport.

Spring Wagon (Spider)

When we got to the exhibit of how technology has evolved over the centuries, we had a good laugh at a laptop used in 1985. How things have changed over the years, right?

Laptop of 1985

We finished our tour of the museum (after almost two hours) with a visit to the room where the history of the port of East London is depicted. The Port of East London is South Africa’s only commercial river port and is located at the mouth of the Buffalo River.

Model of port of East London in 1980

One last interesting story we read was that of the unusual double-decker bridge over the Buffalo River. Excavations began in 1931 and the bridge was officially opened in February 1935. The lower deck was for rail and the upper for road traffic and is to this day the only bridge of its kind in South Africa. It got us thinking that we would have to visit this bridge to see how it looks these days after more than 88 years since it opened. (You can read about our visit to this bridge, here).

Double-decker bridge over the Buffalo River in 1935

We love museum visits because they give you a glimpse of bygone days. But I have to admit, we were blown away by the East London Museum. Walking out of the museum, we took one last look at a model of the famous coelacanth in the gardens.

Model of coelacanth in front of the East London Museum

The only thing left for us to do was get something cold to drink after our morning in the museum. And since the milkshakes at Friesland Milk Bar are known as the best – not only in East London, but in South Africa – we drove to this corner café and bought two ice cold milkshakes: Chocolate for Berto and strawberry for me. The perfect end to a very enjoyable day in East London!

Friesland Milk Bar milkshakes – the BEST