Stories Archive

January 30, 2017

WHO WAS WALKER OF ‘WALKER BAY’?

In earlier books on the history of Hermanus (Tredgold, Burman and du Toit) reference is made to a certain “Walker”, a ‘surveyor’ in the Royal Navy, as being the person after whom Walker Bay is named. This could make some sense since someone named Walker could have been employed to […]
September 9, 2016
Hermanus-History-Society

Berdine Luyt’s ‘John’ – A Wartime Romance?

Among the finished compositions that Berdine Luyt left in her papers is a file titled “Letters from Hermanus: 1942-1945”. The file contains 36 lengthy letters from Berdine Luyt, the eldest daughter of P John and Joey van Rhyn Luyt, owners of the Marine Hotel, Hermanus. Many servicemen stayed at the […]
July 14, 2016
Hermanus-History-Society

The New Harbour in Hermanus: Part 2

From the time the New Harbour opened in 1951 to about 1970, it was the base for a perlemoen boom. Divers flocked to Hermanus, with primitive apparatus they harvested large numbers of perlemoen and sold these to one of the six canning factories that opened in response to a huge […]
June 8, 2016
hermanus history society

Hermanus New Harbour

Hermanus has two harbours, neither of them with a proper name. They are just “The Old Harbour” near the town centre and “The New Harbour” some kilometres to the west. The Old Harbour is very much better known than the New Harbour, as it has a Museum devoted to its […]