page_title: Algoa Bay
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Algoa Bay / History
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Titel catalogus Leupe (NA): Kaart van de Delagaobaai. Kompaslijnen gedrukt bij Willem Blaeu (dit gedrukte papier werd ook na diens sterven in 1638 nog dikwijls gebruikt). Notities verso: De Delagoa baai van Afrika [in potlood] / 23 [in potlood] / No. 2. English: Title in the Leupe catalogue (NA): Kaart van de Delagaobaai. Compass lines printed by Willem Blaeu (this printed paper was used often afther his death in 1638). Notes on reverse: De Delagoa baai van Afrika [in pencil] / 23 [in pencil] / No. 2.
context_page_description: Algoa Bay is a bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located in the east coast, 425 miles east of the Cape of Good Hope.
  Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to 436 m deep. The harbour city of Port Elizabeth is situated adjacent to the bay, as is the new Coega deep water port facility.
context_section_description: The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to reach Algoa Bay in 1488, where he planted a wooden cross on a small island now called St Croix or Santa Cruz island. He gave the bay a name meaning "Bay of the Rock", which was changed in Portugal to Bahia de Lagoa or Bay of the Lagoon, and which eventually became Algoa Bay.
  Joshua Slocum talks about Algoa Bay in his book 'Sailing Alone Around the World':
  The early Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far as Algoa Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small island, now called Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross, and swore they would cut the captain's throat if he attempted to sail farther. Beyond this they thought was the edge of the world, which they too believed was flat; and fearing that their ship would sail over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their commander, to retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year later, we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape of Storms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the way to India was easy with the help of Arab and Indian fishermen.
  Nautical charts of the bay caution mariners that "projectiles and badly corroded mustard gas containers have been found in the area between Cape St Francis and Bird Island out to depths of 400 m (1,300 ft). Trawlers should exercise the greatest caution."
  The chemical weapons were dumped in the bay in the aftermath of World War II. During that conflict, Port Elizabeth was used as a research, manufacturing and storage site for mustard gas ordered by the British Air Ministry.
caption: Late 17th century map of Algoa Bay.
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