Pilkington's Harbour
1856 - 1870

The first real attempt to improve the depth of the Buffalo River was undertaken in 1856, when Woodford Pilkington, Civil Engineer for British Kaffraria, surveyed the river mouth and drew up plans to build containing walls which would use the force of the river itself to scour out the sand bar. Pilkington calculated that the entire project would cost about £110 974 but it could, he said, be carried out in stages.

The operation, however, was haphazardly carried out and by 1870, when work was brought to a halt, considerable damage had been done to the river mouth. Rocks had been dislodged from the breakwater walls so that, instead of the channel becoming deeper, it was in fact being blocked. The channel was therefore often completely closed off.

It would be only in the mid-1870s, with the commencement of the Coode plans, that real progress would be made in harbour construction.

Dr Keith Tankard

Pilkington's Harbour
1856 - 1870

East London was founded in 1847, and all surveys pointed to the fact that the lagoon at the mouth of the Buffalo River could provide a more than adequate harbour. Nevertheless, until 1870, all attempted improvements of the harbour facilities within the river mouth were unsuccessful.

The first real attempt to improve the depth of the Buffalo River was undertaken in 1856, when Woodford Pilkington, Civil Engineer for British Kaffraria, surveyed the river mouth and drew up plans to build containing walls which would use the force of the river itself to scour out the sand bar. Pilkington calculated that the entire project would cost about £110 974 but it could, he said, be carried out in stages.

Stage one of this project was begun in 1856 under Pilkington's supervision, at first with labour supplied by the 89th Regiment. In 1858, however, when the transportation of convicts from British Kaffraria to Robben Island was halted, it was decided to assign them to work on the harbour. There was a delay of nearly a year before this plan could be put into operation, while the Civil Works barracks at East London was converted into a convict barracks, a task completed in January 1859.

In the interim period, the build-up of the sand-bar had completely closed off the river mouth, which made a mockery of the attempt to deepen the river. "From this you will see," the Graham's Town Journal exclaimed in sarcasm, "that the works at the mouth are not progressing very favourably." The action of the sea, moreover, had already started to erode the work which had been so far accomplished. Large rocks were dislodged from the containing walls and a considerable number settled in the river mouth where they threatened to damage vessels which attempted to enter the river. This was still the situation in August 1866, and a report that year claimed that only vessels with a very shallow draught could be brought into the harbour. By 1869, work had ceased altogether as it had become apparent that money was being spent in vain.

In November 1867, Harbour Master George Walker summed up the effects of Pilkington's plans. In a report on the condition of the harbour works, Walker stated that no improvement had taken place but, on the contrary, "injury had occurred". Many stones, he said, had fallen into the channel during the construction and more had been washed in later by the sea. The wall often wanted repairs and was so undermined as to be dangerous. If it fell, Walker said, the whole wall would go and the channel would then be completely blocked. Furthermore, Walker believed that the centre training wall had been built from the wrong side of the river because, instead of causing a scouring effect on the river, he said, it had actually led to the silting up of the river mouth.

Watts and Agar-Hamilton argue that Pilkington's scheme was abandoned because of the cost and because Pilkington's successors were dubious about the proposal to curve the breakwater across the mouth of the river in order to prevent the sand of the scour from being washed back into the river. This, they argued, would force ships to enter the river broadside to the surf and prevailing winds. Sailing vessels would, it was believed, be driven onto the rocky shore.

It would take until 1872 for serious construction work to be started on yet another harbour scheme. This would be Sir John Coode's plan which would be immediately successful, but even more so when

See also: British Kaffraria Early harbour surveys, 1847 Sir John Coode's harbour

a suction dredger (the Lucy) went to work in 1886, clearing a channel which would certainly be deep enough for large ships to start entering the river mouth.

Dr Keith Tankard