Die verslaggewer aan wie Generaal Christiaan De Wet een van sy min onderhoude toegestaan het...
Upper Karoo Norvalspont History
All in all, three ferries bore the name Glasgow as each was successively wrecked or broken up by the moody Orange River. And just as it was the British Military that caused the ferry to be built in the first place, it was the very same body that caused its final destruction. The third and final Glasgow Pont was a grand affair, far different from the first one that has been powered by eight oarsmen: Built of Burmese teak and run on steel cables through winding gear forged at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, the last pont was steered under the careful eye of Piet Roux the Pont Man.
The Glasgow’s last fateful crossing of the Orange occurred when a blustering British Officer demanded that Piet take his Troops and equipment across the swollen waters that were running in furious spate. Piet’s arguments and warnings were in vain, though: if the Pont man would not make the crossing willingly then the Officer would commandeer the craft, and so it was.
Under duress and with bitter utterances Piet steered out into the angry waters as the waves bucked the craft and her cables strained against the current until, just as the Pont man had warned, they gave way to the water’s murderous force. Fully capsized, the Glasgow spilled out the troops, their equipment, wagon and mules – and mulish officer! – till they were all swept away. Some were dashed on the river’s rocks and others were swept under to a sad and watery death along the Waschbank shores.
For weeks, so they say, the poor mules’ bloated bodies were trapped in their tangled harnesses until the angry waters subsided sufficiently for them to be cut free and floated away. Piet Roux, the reluctant hero was dragged ashore but so overcome by the incident that he passed away a few weeks later and laid to rest in his home town of Phillipolis.
A last remnant of the winding gear can still be seen in a field just a few hundred metres from the Waschbank Game Lodge and restaurant with the maker’s name still legible in the castings. The foundry at Old Trafford is, of course, long gone and the soccer boots now tread where the cabling gear for the Norval’s last great Glasgow Pont was forged.
Next time: The Clouds of War gather at the Pont.
Article courtesy of Rod Mann, Owner of the 'Pont, 2005 - 2010
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