Chapter 469 Walvis Bay
March 1877.
On the west coast of Africa, four ships quietly broke away from the slave trading fleet from East Africa to North America, and they docked towards a bay.
Walvis Bay has a special development. A long and narrow channel extends into the Atlantic Ocean. The entire bay seems to be formed by a person stretching out an arm. The opening of the bay faces north, which makes Walvis Bay It is easy to identify, basically all ships passing here can recognize it.
In fact, in 1487, the Portuguese navigator Dias (one of the founders of the Age of Discovery) discovered Walwich Bay. Before the 18th century, the Dutch also investigated here. , but nothing happened, so Walvis Bay's location is very prominent, but it has not received much attention.
"This is Walvis Bay, the only deep-water port between Angola and South Africa. We have measured that most of the water should be under fifteen meters, and the bay exit is close to ten kilometers. There are indeed conditions for building a deep-water port!"< br>
However, these data cannot reassure East African sailors, because on the land on the east side of the bay, there is an endless white desert, and only a few green plants can be seen here and there.
"No wonder His Highness said that the conditions here are poor. The land is still desert, but it is somewhat similar to Mogadishu."
"It is far worse than Mogadishu, Mogadishu It is an oasis. There is no big river like the Shabelle River here. ”
From a tourism perspective, the scenery of Walvis Bay is remarkable. The pure white sandy beach and the blue sea water give people a refreshing feeling. But no matter how beautiful it is, it can't change the fact that this is a desert.
Andre kicked the animal bones on the shores of Walvis Bay and said: "If we want to find water here, I'm afraid it will take a little more effort. I don't know when the people in Letania Province will be able to get supplies." Channel. ”
Benefiting from the construction of the East African Central Railway, cargo transportation is now much more convenient, but this is only relative to the inland areas of East Africa. The Central Railway has a westward extension, but it is further away from Angola. Recently, the huge desert in the southwest has made East Africa temporarily uninterested in building a similar railway in the south. Therefore, there is no way for the materials in the rear to be sent here directly by railway, and must be transferred through the province of Letania.
Leitania Province is located in a plateau area. If you want to transport supplies from Letania to Walvis Bay, you must pass through hundreds of kilometers of desert. This is also a difficulty in East Africa's occupation of Namibia.
Actually, Letania Province is in the northeast of Namibia, but it is already the best land route from East Africa to Namibia. It is thousands of kilometers due east closer to Walvis Bay. It is a desert area, the Namib Desert is almost connected with the Kalahari Desert.
“Now we are divided into two groups of 20 teams to conduct surveys within 20 kilometers of the surrounding area. The first group is responsible for looking for areas where groundwater may exist, and the second group goes to the surrounding area to see if there are any oases or rivers. "The most important thing now is to find drinking water, and use the drinking water on the ship sparingly," Captain Chris said.
East Africa is relatively experienced in finding water in arid areas. Africa itself has many dry areas, so this is an essential skill for some East Africans, and these skills were learned from African indigenous people and Arabs.
Soon, the crew identified more than a dozen places where water sources might exist through the characteristics of vegetation distribution. However, after digging several meters deeper, the results were not satisfactory.
However, it was not bright in the east and bright in the west. No results were achieved in Walvis Bay in the evening. Good news came from those exploring in the north.
“We discovered an oasis about 20 kilometers north. It is a relatively large river. The conditions on both sides of the river are very good, giving birth to a relatively broad vegetation belt.”
This river is the Swakop River, one of the important rivers in Namibia in the past. It originates from the inland mountains and flows downstream through the Namib Desert. However, the water volume is not very stable. Sometimes it may directly dry up due to less water coming from the upstream. of river bed.
Swakopmund, the most important port in German Southwest Africa in the previous life, was located at this location. After all, Swakopmund was not as famous as Walvis Bay (Walvis Bay Port), so Ernst did not think of it for a moment, but Swakopmund was also a well-known tourist destination in Namibia in its previous life, especially famous for its German architecture. Historically, Swakopmund was founded by the Germans in 1892. It became the center of German colonial rule in South-West Africa and was the main port in South-West Africa during the German occupation. Later Swakopmund was replaced by Walvisport due to constant siltation.
So during this period, Swakopmund obviously had more natural conditions for building a port than Walvis Bay, which gave East Africans a difficult choice.
“Captain, the oasis area in the north has obviously better conditions than Walvis Bay. At least the drinking water problem can be solved, and Walvis Bay is a place that His Highness personally confessed must be captured. How can we What to do?"
Chris thought for a while: "Why choose? There are a lot of us, so we might as well establish bases in both places, even if there is really no water here. It can also be shipped from the north.”
But Chris's mind soon changed, because after digging down for more than ten meters, water came out!
"The water is coming out! The water is coming out!"
Chris hurried to the water outlet and looked at the clear well water seeping out from the ground: "Hurry up and find some materials from the boat, put it in Hold the well head, don't let the sand The well was buried. "
Because the surface is a desert, the sand still flows down the dug pit, so the sailors found wooden boards and simply made a partition to separate the sand from the well. A wooden manhole cover.
“Now that the water problem has been solved, the conditions for building a stronghold in Walvis Bay are now available. Do we still want to establish a stronghold in the north?”
"Of course, that place is not far from Walvis Bay, so it must be in our hands, otherwise what will happen if the enemy takes advantage of it in the future?"
In fact, Walvis Bay in the previous life was It is a colony of the British, so there must be groundwater. The British are not gods and do not need to drink water.
In the previous life of German Southwest Africa, Walvis Bay in Walvis Bay was an enclave of the British South Africa Colony in German Southwest Africa. It was not until the end of the 20th century that South Africa came under pressure from the international community. , returning Walvis Bay to Namibia.
Walvis Bay is definitely a special place. Its sea conditions are much stronger than those of Swakopmund in the north. Although Swakopmund has relatively rich freshwater resources, it faces The Atlantic Ocean has no natural geographical barrier, and Walvis Bay is the only deep-water port on the 2,000-kilometer coastline of Southwest Africa, so both places are important to East Africa.
Two months later, the province of Letania finally got in touch with the sailors heading to Walvis Bay, and the construction here in East Africa finally started.
Prior to this, the East African government had learned about the existence of the Swakop River in the north of Walvis Bay through the news brought back by the returning slave ships.
The East African government decided to develop the two places at the same time. Soon a fort appeared in Walvis Bay. Regarding the name of the Walvis Bay port, it was still called Walvis Bay. Ernst believed that this The name is very apt.
The two strongholds built by East Africa at the mouth of Walvis Bay and the Swakop River were soon discovered by the Cape Colony. Of course, the first thing the Cape Colony noticed was East Africa's influence on Oran. Expansion operations on the north bank of the river.
This caused considerable dissatisfaction in the Cape Colony, because they were also interested in Walvis Bay and originally planned to occupy it next year. As a result, East Africa took the lead (the time of British colonization of Walvis Bay was 1878).
There was even an unpleasant scene. The Governor of East Africa sent people to investigate Walvis Bay. It turned out that a military fortress stood in the uninhabited area in their memories. This made the British who came all the way from Cape Town People were in a dilemma, and finally had no choice but to return to Cape Town and report to the Governor.
(End of this chapter)