O'Okiep - Card 1


Card Title or Subject	Port Nolloth Jetty, Sowing Method of Loading Copper Ore.
Card Type	Black & white print.
Reverse Details	Divided back.
Publishers Details &/or note	Note on rear indicates card to have been issued by Trevissick, Port Nolloth and "Printed in Germany".
Postal Usage Date (if known)	Used but no stamp affixed and no postmarks. Possibly enclosed in a letter.
Notes & Additional Information	The name of the local issuer of this postcard (Trevissick) surely indicates him to be one of the many Cornish copper/tin miners that were quick to move into Namaqualand after the 1850s when copper mining in the area commenced in earnest. These men represented the first of many waves of Cornish miners that were to fuel South Africa's mining industry in the decades that were to follow. The message on this card has obviously been written by one of the workers at the Jetty shown in the postcard. Its content is historically significant and is reproduced in full below; "The stuff on the left of this view is the copper ore. It is put into those big tubs and run down to the jetty by an engine. Then it is tipped into the lighters and moved off to the ship where we unload it using smaller tubs than you see in the picture. One of these big tubs holds about 3 tons." It is more probable that the material being loaded in the image is copper matte and note lump ore.