Mossel Bay Photos

It was built as a shop for R. Transfeldt in 1881. In about 2001 it was damaged during a well-meant "restoration".

The date on the wall of the Customs House

The Customs House was built in 1874as a single storey. it was extended in 1882 and a verandah was added in 1892.

It was built in 1902 by Cochrane & Cherry and the archtects were Milne & Sladdin of Cape Town.  It was used by the bank until 1950 and is now the office for the Mossel Bay Advertiser (the local weekly newspaper).  It had a beautiful porch witch was removed for street widening.

Urk House at 12 Church Street was built in 1904 as offices for C.W. Black whose shop was next door on the corner of Bland Street. It is the oldest three-storey building in town.

This building was built in 1876 as the ABC Bank with accomodation upstairs. The covered display area is more recent.

Scallop Shells on display in the Shell Museum. A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae.  The brightly coloured, fan-shaped shells are valued by shell collectors and is used as motifs in art and design. The name "scallop" is derived from the Old French escalope, which means "shell".

Chiton shells in the Shell Museum. Chitons are small to large marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora. They have a dorsal shell with eight separate shell plates or valves.  These plates overlap at the front and back edges and provide good protection for impacts from above.

Paper Nautilus or Argonauts Shells in the Shell Museum. The argonauts are a group of pelagic octopuses.  These "shells" are the paper thin eggcase produced by female argonauts in which they reside.

This very rare Pygmy mask from the equatorial forests of Gabon in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) can be found in the Shell Museum of the Dias Museum Complex.

The Shell Museum at the Dias Museum Complex portrays the history of our use of shells.  It is housed in the S hirley Building (named for Joe Shirley, who once used it for his plumbing business).

Hidden behind the trees is the old Shirley Building that houses the Shell Museum.  It was built in 1902 as an extension of the old Mill and served as a store, furniture factory and garage.  In later years the building was used by Mr Joe Shirley for his plumbing business and became known as the "Shirley Building". The building was restored and is now used as a Shell Museum by the Dias Museum Complex.

The third stain glass window inside the Maritime Museum.

Another of the three beautiful stain glass windows inside the Maritime Museum.

This is one of three beautiful stain glass windows inside the Maritime Museum.

One of the two Cape Dutch style cottages in the Dias Museum Complex’s gardens.  They are replicas, built on the original foundations, of houses which Alexander Munro built here in about 1830. Munro ran a seamen’s canteen in one of these buildings, and his family later operated a seal hunting and whaling station from the adjacent beach.

This building was built in 1857 for Meyer & Co. It was used as business premises by import and export traders Fleming & Mudie in 1870 - 1890.  It was used by the Mossel Bay Advertiser from 1931-1988. It was restored in 1991 and is now used as the offices for Rauch Gertenbach Attorneys and Boshoff Visser Auditors.

The Ochre Barn was built in 1849 for Barry & Nephews. It was modernised between 2000 - 2007 and now houses the Protea Hotel. 

This is the window of Searle's Manor. The building was built in 1902 and was used as a warehouse by Searle's & Co of Great Brak River and later by other traders.

Searle's Manor was built in 1902 and was used as a warehouse by Searle's & Co of Great Brak River and later by other traders. The raised stoep was used as loading platform. It was restored in 2005/2006 into apartments and offices.

This is the statue of Bartolomeu Dias in the Dias Museum Complex. Dias was a Portuguese nobleman and explorer.  He was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa in 1488. On 10 October 1487 King John II of Portugal appointed Dias to sail around Africa to find a trade route to India but also to look for the mythical Prester John.  Read more about Prester John on my other blog .

This is the entrance to the Maritime Museum inside the Dias Museum Complex. The building as originally erected in 1901 to serve as a grain and sawmill. It was re-designed in the 1980's to serve as a Maritime Museum. A life-sized replica of Bartolomeu Dias’s caravel is on display together with all aspects of the maritime history of the early Portuguese, Dutch and English navigators.

This fresh water spring is the one from which Bartolomeu Dias, João da Nova, and other early explorers drew water when they put in at Mossel Bay. Dias named it "Aguada de São Bras" or "The watering place of St Blaize" since he landed in Mossel Bay on the Feast of St Blaize (3 February 1488) The spring can be found in the Dias Museum Complex and it still flows today.  

These houses are replicas of the cottages built here by Alexander Munro from Scotland in 1830.  They are built on the original foundations. Alexander Munro operated a canteen on the premises where unruly seamen met. His son got the first permit to catch whales on the beach below. The front house is one of Mossel Bay’s national monuments. Unfortunately these buildings are not open to the public.

This is the post box at the Old Post Office Tree in the Dias Museum Complex.   It can be used to post postcards and letters. According to the museum website a special frank is used on all outgoing mail from this post box to commemorate the fact that South Africa’s first post office was this tree.  I have never send a letter from here and cannot confirm that the special frank is still used. The reason for the boot-shaped letterbox is that it is presumed that the first letters were left at this old tree from the 1500’s in a sailor’s boot!

The old milkwood tree (Sideroxylon inerme) inside the Dias Museum Complex has been used as a post office since 1501. In 1500, on his return journey from the east, Pedro de Ataide left a letter of importance in a shoe or iron pot under a tree.  In 1501 this letter was found by Joao da Nova, commander of the third East India fleet en route to India. In this way the first Post Office in South Africa was founded. The Post Office Tree has been declared a national monument.

One of the main attractions in the Maritime Museum in the Dias Museum Complex is the Dias Caravel.  This ship is a replica of the ship Bartolomeu Dias used when he sailed into Mossel Bay in 1488. The caravel was built in Portugal in 1987 and was sailed to South Africa in 1988 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Dias' voyage.

This house was built in 1915 by a magnate from Oudtshoorn.  It is the only house in the "Klein Karoo" style in Mossel Bay.  Scottish stonemasons were brought in from Oudtshoorn to cut and dress the stones.  Their style was different from the Anglican masons from Cornwell who worked in Mossel Bay. 

Dolosse at the Mossel Bay harbour. A dolos (plural dolosse ) is a concrete block in a complex geometric shape weighing up to 20 tons, used in great numbers to protect harbour walls from the erosive force of ocean waves. They were developed in East London , South Africa , in 1963 and are found in millions around the world.

The Poort at the point in Mossel Bay at high tide on a winter afternoon.  In summer it is a popular swimming spot.

Another view of the St Blaze Terrace, built in 1909.

The Cape St Blaze Lighthouse was erected in 1864.  Until the late 1970s a clockwork system was originally used to turn the lens and it required a lightkeeper to climb up the tower and wind it up every three hours.