Pristine china adds credence to CT port legend

RAY SMUTS
A POPULARLY held belief among Cape Town’s port community is that Union Castle kitchen staff simply dumped extra-dirty crockery over the stern. What is fact, however, is that some of the cleanest porcelain china you have ever seen has been unearthed from the harbour bed at A-Berth, once home to the famous Royal mail ships that served South Africa for more than 120 years. The plates came to light during recent dredging operations at A-berth, the exclusive Union Castle terminal. Now this pristine ‘harbour collection’ of ironstone chinaware by Ashworth Brothers of England resides in the care of the Cape Town Port Authority. This fascinating tale is one of many interesting snippets of information in the National Ports Authority’s 2005/06 Handbook for the Port of Cape Town, which has just seen the light of day. In a “Welcome to our Port” message, port manager Sanjay Govan says: “While proud of the service we offer, we plan to make it even better, including major investment where required to improve service and turnarounds, with training at every level to match the upgrading of infrastructure.”