Swakopmund Jetty Originally Built 1904 Schutztruppe
It was decided that a wooden landing jetty should be constructed for the purpose of off-loading the boats and
SWAKOPMUND NAMIBIA HISTORY THE JETTY. It was decided that a wooden landing jetty should be constructed for the purpose of off-loading the boats and rafts. On 25 Oct 1904 a team of sixty…
Swakopmund Jetty - a history
Originally a wooden structure now concrete and steel and a popular walk along..
This page follows-on from the history of the Swakopmund Mole. The difficulties that had been experienced with the rapid silting up of the harbour area at the Mole caused an urgent rethink of the way in which the cargoes could be offloaded from the ships which anchored-off one kilometre from the shore-line.
It was decided that a wooden landing jetty should be constructed for the purpose of off-loading the boats and rafts. On 25 Oct 1904 a team of sixty soldier engineers of the 2nd Eisenbahnbaukompagnie landed at Swakopmund with the materials and began with the construction of the jetty. The operation of securing the foundations and lower braces of the pillars saw work teams being regularly swamped by the high Atlantic surf. Working conditions were dangerous, difficult and debilitating, but the tough engineers were racing against time as the Mole harbour was rapidly silting up. They met their deadline and the Jetty was commissioned 25 April 1905. It was 275 m long and 9 m wide. By 1907 the volume of goods being handled by the jetty warranted the expenditure of not only extending the jetty by 50 m but also widening it a further 5 m in order that the bulkier cargo could be handled efficiently. During the early days of the colony shipping goods to Swakopmund presented a major costing problem for there were no return loads for the ships. It was as late as 1907 before the Otavi Copper Mine came into production and the export of ore began, and by 1911 the first blocks of Karibib dimension stone marble were shipped through the port of Swakopmund.
But the jetty soon encountered its own problems as the foundations were affected by spring tides. Also the marine ship-worm (Teredo navalis) bored into the submerged wooden beams, which had to be replaced at regular intervals, so it was decided that a steel built jetty should replace the wooden one. The construction of the (steel) iron jetty, which commenced in 1912, was contracted as a joint venture to the companies Flander A.G., Benroth and Grun & Bilfinger. The jetty was originally planned to be 640 m long, and stood on the south side of the wooden jetty. However only 262 m of the steel jetty had been completed at the outbreak of the Great War. Drilling and securing into the bedrock overcame foundation problems. Two of the original ‘stamper’ drills bits of 63cm and 93 cm across the chisel ends can be seen mounted on a pedestal at the entry point to the jetty.
The unusually heavy rains of 1934 resulted in so much sand being washed down the Swakop River that the shoreline was moved out past the end of the jetty. It took several years for the shoreline to return to its' normal position.
Of Interest: The soldiers of the 2nd Eisenbahnbaukompagnie also built the Kaserne in Bismarck St. The names of their 8 comrades who perished while serving in Namibia can be seen on a plaque in the entrance-hall.
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