Natural Fertilizer
After the battle of Saldanha between the Dutch and the English in 1781, things settled down again in the Langebaan area.
Peace prevailed in the area until an astute businessman from Liverpool, a certain Andrew Livingston, read in the journals of an American sealing captain, about the vast amount of guano available in Nambia and the Langebaan islands.
Without chemical fertilizers, guano was an excellent natural fertilizer and the British entrepreneur started what was known as “The Guano Rush.’ Between 1843 and 1845, some 1.8 million tons were removed from the coast by over 6,000 men in 450 boats.
A British warship attempted to keep order and ensure that taxes were paid, but it was understandably incapable of handling the influx and so general lawlessness prevailed.
Some Useless Guano…
There is an interesting tale on the origin of the word ‘shit’, however, it is quite untrue. Word has it that when sailors from days of old shipped guano and manure, they discovered, the hard way, that if it became wet it would begin to ferment. This fermentation releases methane gas, which is not only smelly but also quite explosive, as a few sea captains found out to their and their boat’s horror.
So keeping the guano and manure dry was paramount, it was also a lighter load to carry when dry. Storing it below deck where the biggest chance of a leak would occur was not the ideal place for the load. Therefore the cargo was stamped “Ship High in Transit” or simply “SHIT”.
An interesting fact is that acronyms only evolved in the early 20th Century and only became common during the First World War. Etymologists have a different take on the origins of the word, however, they claim that it comes from an old English word meaning dung. In Middle English, the word was ‘schitte’, which over time became the modern word, ‘shit’.
By Ann Gadd
Langebaan, few towns in South Africa exude as much of a beachy-breakaway feel as this spread-out dorp shimmering along the West Coast shores...