Port Rex

The War of 1834 — commonly known as the 6th Frontier War — saw Sir Benjamin D'Urban annex the territory between the Keiskamma and Kei Rivers under the name "Province of Queen Adelaide".

In May 1835, as the Governor and his soldiers relaxed under the trees at a mission station with the grandiose title "King William's Town", they realised that the Buffalo River ran right through the centre of the new colony. Might its mouth then not make an ideal port?

Sir Benjamin immediately sent a company under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Harry Smith to the river mouth to ascertain this possibility. Their report was more than promising, for the mouth formed a deep lagoon which would afford good shelter to small coasting vessels once they had crossed the shallow sand-bar.

Nevertheless, Sir Benjamin procrastinated in taking further action until eventually — after some badgering — he appointed Captain John Bailie to survey the area properly. This was done in January 1836.

With Bailie's reports also being satisfactory, the brig Knysna — owned by John Rex, a Cape Town merchant — was chartered to carry supplies to the troops at Fort Peddie.

The Knysna duly arrived at the Buffalo River mouth in mid-November 1836 and would remain at anchor in the roadstead for six weeks — its mass was too great to enter the lagoon. During that time, 100 soldiers under the command of Captain Thomas Biddulph would see to the off-loading of her cargo and its transportation to Fort Peddie.

The story goes that the name "Port Rex" was bestowed by the Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Districts, Sir Andries Stockenström, who visited the camp on 5 December 1836. Sir Andries was said to have been so impressed with what he saw that he named the place in honour of the ship's owner who had risked so much to bring his vessel to these unchartered waters.

There is, however, a problem with this story.

Sir Andries was in the area for a specific purpose, i.e. to restore independence to the Xhosa Chiefs. Only the previous day he had met them at King William's Town and the legal documents had duly been signed.

Indeed, the ink was scarcely dry before Sir Andries journeyed to the mouth of the Buffalo River to inspect operations there. Is it likely, therefore, that he would be so Janus-faced as to recognise the Chiefs' independence the one day, and then proclaim the existence of a new colonial port the next — a port which would cease to exist just three weeks later?

The truth is more likely that the troops threw a party that night to honour the visit of the Lieutenant Governor. In fact, it is quite clear that the soldiers at the river camp held regular parties, and had named the pathway from the river to their camp "the Grog Stairs".

It is probable, therefore, that the decision to "name" the port was no more than a party prank. Out came the paint — and soon a nearby stone had been daubed with the words "Port Rex". The next day Sir Andries set off for the Cape Colony — probably with a very sore head.

Three weeks later, their camp was struck and the name would be used no more.

1. Both Captain Biddulph and Bailie told the story of the creation of Port Rex as if it were true.

• Can you think of any reason why they would lie?

---

[Need help?]

A fundamental reason why people would lie is if they have vested interests in doing so. Biddulph and Bailie were both writing their version of the Port Rex story in 1847, eleven years later. Each also had every reason to lie, or at least to stretch the truth. Captain Bailie was attempting to persuade the Governor to give him a massive piece of land on the east bank of the Buffalo River, a claim which he said was based on his involvement in the Port Rex saga. If the story of Port Rex wasn't true, therefore, his claim to the land was also fictitious. Captain Biddulph doesn't appear to have vested interests as such. He was, however, focussed on persuading the new Governor to create a harbour at the mouth of the Buffalo River. It would enrich his argument therefore if he could claim that a harbour had already been created there at an earlier period. Remember that people's stories are not always what they might seem to be.

2. Although the John Bailie Memorial at East London's Signal Hill is a genuine monument, it contains no less than three blatant errors.

• How do you think such errors could arise?

---

[Need help?]

Some of these errors appear to originate in amateur historian George Cory's early History of South Africa. It was he, for instance, who claimed that John Bailie raised the flag. The error was probably accidental. Cory would have been writing his notes in shorthand and would have written something like, "Capt B raised the flag" - the B meaning Biddulph. Years later, however, Cory forgot the meaning of his abbreviations and wrote instead "Bailie". The other errors could possibly have arisen from surmise. People forgot who Bailie was and so created a background for him, naming him a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Remember that early historians were not as precise with their facts as modern historians are. Even then modern historians also make accidental errors - it's a part of being human. Much of the Port Rex myth was created by poorly informed early historians who sometimes didn't have the means to check their facts.

3. There have been attempts to rename East London as "Port Rex"

• Do you think there is any validity to this?

---

[Need help?]

Probably not. Even if the naming of "Port Rex" was not a party joke, the place was certainly never a historical port. It was just a landing stage for cargo for one expedition. "Port Rex" was therefore never anything more than a military camp, established to offload cargo from the Knysna. As soon as the task was finished, camp was struck and that was the end of the affair. It was never a proper harbour.

See also: Read lots more about Port Rex Encyclopaedia East London Really Useful East London Page