Charles Forsyth

Surveying the Buffalo River, 1847

Lieutenant Charles Forsyth, Royal Navy and the first Harbour Master at East London, conducted extensive surveys of the river mouth to determine its viability for use as a harbour. His first survey commenced in April 1847, making use of long-boats from the Frederick Huth, a small coasting vessel then at anchor in the Buffalo lagoon. (There is no truth in the legend that he used the Beagle, the naval vessel associated with Charles Darwin's evolutionary expedition.) Forsyth's second survey was made in January 1848, and gave the first comprehensive report on the depth

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of water over the bar and in the roadstead. In all, his reports were favourable and gave the thumbs-up for use of the Buffalo River as a port for British Kaffraria.

Dr Keith Tankard

Charles Forsyth

Surveying the Buffalo River, 1847

In April 1847, the Buffalo River mouth began to be used as a port to supply the British troops fighting in the War of the Axe. Since it was intended that the area between the Keiskamma and the Kei Rivers was to become a new Crown Colony called British Kaffraria, it was only logical that a thorough survey be conducted of the river to ascertain its viability as a harbour. Lieutenant Charles Forsyth of the Royal Navy was the man assigned to this duty.

Between April and December 1847, Forsyth conducted two extensive surveys. He commenced his first on 5 April 1847 but poor weather hampered any real work until the beginning of May, when the sea calmed sufficiently to allow the Frederick Huth to drop anchor in the roadstead. There she would remain for at least seven days while discharging her cargo.

It is probable that, because he had at that time no other vessel available to him, Forsyth used a long-boat from the Frederick Huth to make his preliminary examination of the roadstead. (It has at times been claimed that Forsyth used the Beagle, the ship associated with Charles Darwin's evolutionary research, but this is merely a quaint legend and one which is certainly devoid of any truth.)

The delay caused by the adverse weather served a useful purpose because it gave Forsyth the opportunity to observe the river mouth for a full month, under all tides and in all wind conditions. His report was, therefore, far more comprehensive and conclusive than that drawn up by John Bailie in January 1836. Forsyth concluded that the river was indeed practicable as a harbour, "almost always in moderate weather, at slack water or with the flood tide". The ebb at spring tides, however, generally ran out at a rate of four to five knots and it was impossible for boats to pull against it.

The bar had been passable for laden boats, he said, for 13 days that month, and once they had crossed the bar, every obstacle was overcome. The boats would land alongside a temporary wharf, which was even then in construction on the western bank. The anchorage, he concluded, was good, and "infinitely superior" to Waterloo Bay (near the Fish River) because the sea-bottom was sandy and clear of rocks, and the water was "of moderate depth". The Frederick Huth, he said, had held through two gales "with moderate ease".

Although Forsyth had completed the survey of the anchorage and the entrance to the river, he reported that he had not been able to obtain the necessary soundings because he had lacked a suitable vessel with which to take proper measurements. Until he had done so, he said, he did not feel competent to give his opinion as to whether it would be possible for small steamers or coasters to enter the river. He concluded, however, that until a regular surf-boat establishment had been created, little could be done to land supplies.

On 1 January 1848, Forsyth submitted his second report and, in it, he again favoured the river mouth as a port. The anchorage in the roadstead, he said, was excellent half-a-mile from shore in 10 fathoms of water, and vessels were able to ride out gales "with apparent ease". Although the bay was open to southerly winds, this did not present a danger as gales seldom blew from that direction.

He reported, however, that the fluctuations of the river were a problem. The river mouth had a shifting bar of sand across it which was affected by the "freshet" (small flood) which came down the river in summer, as well as by the heavy gales. He suggested that the entrance could be improved and opened to vessels "of greater burthen" if the channel were to be confined in a manner similar to that employed at the Cowie River (Port Alfred), i.e. by building training walls to use the natural flow of water to scour out the sand and dump it at sea.

Despite these various intensive reports, no improvement would be witnessed in the Buffalo River mouth for at least 25 years, until Sir John Coode took up the same idea as had been suggested by Forsyth, and began to build training walls along the river bank. It would be only in 1872 that Coode's project would be started, and it was only in 1886 that the dredger "Lucy" began work to physically deepen the river bed.

Dr Keith Tankard