Praia Harbor

Praia Harbor

View of the port and its harbor at the Plateau where cannons once used before the 20th century
Praia Harbor
Location
Country Cape Verde
Location Praia
Coordinates 14°55′12″N 23°30′26″W / 14.9199°N 23.5071°W / 14.9199; -23.5071Coordinates: 14°55′12″N 23°30′26″W / 14.9199°N 23.5071°W / 14.9199; -23.5071
Details
Opened 18th century
Owned by ENAPOR
Type of harbor Natural/Artificial
Size of harbor 315 ha
Land area 15 ha
Size 200 ha (inner)
330 ha (outer)
Wharfs 2
Piers 4
2 abandoned

Praia Harbor or Porto da Praia is the city's harbor located southeast of Praia and south of the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. Its length is 8.6 km stretching from the points of Temerosa through Ribeira da Trindade northwest up to Bicudas. It is now divided into two parts since 2014, the western part is 5 km long stretching up to Ponta do Porto (formerly Ponta de Visconde) and 3 km east to Ponta das Bicudas. Its length is 2.82 km and its width is 1.67 km, the western width is 1.1 km and its eastern length is 1.5 km and the width is around 600 meters. From the islet to Ponta do Porto is only less than 490 meters and 2.4 km up to Ponta das Bicudas. In the middle is the Port of Praia, the island and country's chief port (sometimes second to São Vicente's port at Porto Grande Bay), one of its shipping lanes connect to the nearby Port of Dakar in Senegal. The port's location being inside the Atlantic Ocean sits at or within the major sea-lanes linking Europe to South America, the other linking North America to southern Africa or Australia, much of its ships bypasses the archipelago today, ships heading to the port mainly supplies the nation especially foodstuffs. The port has a container terminal and is also the fishing port where fishing boats dock and supply the island with seafood and has its own fishery and cannery.[1]

The harbor are surrounded by the city's subdivisions including Prainha-Temerosa, Gamboa, the Platô in the west and Achada Grande to the east with the subdivisions of Frente and Tras. Four beaches includes Prainha, Gamboa (once called Santa Maria), Negra and Portinho, the three are very small and Gamboa is its largest. Ribeira da Trindade is the largest stream emptying into the barbar at the middle near the center, a tiny stream is in the west and two streams starting in Achada Grande Tras are in the eastern part.

Numerous streets runs within the harbor including Avenida Rotary International in Prainha, Avenida de Cuba and Avenida Combatentes da Liberdade da Patria in Gamboa and the Plateau and Avenida Charles Darwin in the north.

History

Before 6000 BC, the harbor or the cove was very small as the sea level was lower during the Ice Age, the previous shoreline is unknown. Around 3000 BC, the islet was formed after splitting from the mainland at Praia and formed what is now Ilhéu de Santa Maria and enlarged the harbor.

Together with the island, the harbor was discovered in 1460 by explorer António da Noli and possibly one of the first portion of the island to be discovered.

Combat de la baie de la Praia dans l'île de Santiago au Cap Vert, le 16 avril 1781, by Pierre-Julien Gilbert (1783–1860)
Battle plan of the Battle of Porto Praya on 16 April 1781 at the harbour
1884 Map of Porto Praya (now Praia) featuring the harbor

Early in the 16th century, the low-lying areas surrounding the harbor were forested with kapok trees, they were cut down to make room for farming and agriculture, the forest stretched up to the area west of Praia. Later some portions of the forest were restored mainly with palm in the 18th century and the remainder restored with kapok trees and intermingled with buildings and landmarks built in the 1930s and the mid 20th century, a dense palm grove as they were in the mid-20th century no longer exist, since 2011, the entire harbor is a built up area with the exception of the area of Ponta das Bicudas.

Porto Praia (now Praia) and the Harbor in 1806

In the 16th century, the small settlement was founded and was named Praia de Santa Maria (now Gamboa), later in 1612, another settlement was founded. It became a settlement, later town that would serve as a harbor and around the 19th century, it was the popular alternative to Cidade Velha due to its high harbour fees, in the mid 19th century, Praia became a city.

Praia was raided for the only time in 1585 during the Capture of Santiago, his ships were stationed at the harbor and landed on the beach.[2] Jacques Cassard arrived at Praia Harbour at Praia Negra on May 5, 1712 and brought with it 12 ships, where he led a huge attack on Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha) and conquerered, sacked and destroyed it. After the Cassard expedition, the island capital was moved to Praia and several cannons were installed in the east of Plateau facing the harbour, one of them at the battery and barracks today where Quartel Jaime Mota is located, Praia became the chief port of Cape Verde and one of the main ports of the western portion of West Africa. The harbour as "Porto Praya" was mentioned in the 1747 French/Dutch map by Jacques Nicolas Bellin.[3]

The Battle of Porto Praya took place on April 16, 1781, part of the Anglo-French War of 1778-83 took place inside the harbor. Before the battle on 13 March 1781 Johnstone sailed from Spithead, England with a fleet of 37 ships, including five ships of the line, three frigates, and a large number of troop convoy ships. In early April the fleet anchored in the neutral harbour of Porto Praya in the Portuguese-controlled Cape Verde Islands to take on water and supplies. One of Suffren's ships, the Artésien, had originally been destined for America, and was in need of water, so the French fleet paused when it approached Santiago on 16 April, and Suffren ordered the Artésien to the harbour. The battle took part with Great Britain and France and began and later, the French won the battle, for a day the waters were either British or French.[4] As more ports were constructed in the west of West Africa, its port was not mainly used.

After the Battle of Maio on 23 January 1814, in the evening, two British ships, the Astrea (also as Astraea') and the Creole were anchored at the port to effect repairs.[5]

In 1832, the island was visited by Charles Darwin, he landed at the landing site where an avenue is named after him today and at the port where he later headed to the nearby islet and the islands off the coast of northeast Brazil.[6]

Later in the 19th century, there were 45 cannons outfitting the roads for security of the region and the harbor. The harbor was utilized by ships from West Africa, South America, and the East Indies. September was the low visitation time for Praia by water, due to gale force winds that frequented during that month making harbor visits unsafe.[7]

At the islet, a coal wharf was founded for refueling coal powered ships in the mid 19th century which lasted to the 1950s. From 1875 to around the 1920s, Praia was Cape Verde's second most used port (and sometimes third behind São Filipe on Fogo) after Mindelo on São Vicente, both of the ports had a coal wharf . In 1881 between the harbor and the rest of the Atlantic, the Farol de D. Maria Pia was built, it is now known as Farol de Ponta Temerosa. In 1884, the telegraph line made by India Rubber Gutta linked it with Mindelo and linked it with West and Southern Africa and the United States. During that time, the Port of Dakar became more active than the port.

The port then as "Porto Praya" was mentioned in an 1884 map Imray and 1888 map by J. Dosseray as part of the Hispanosia map collection[8] Not long after, the 1911 Orthography Reform[9] made by Portugal which removed the y and became replaced with an i, along with the city and its beaches, the spelling changed from Porto Praya to its current form Porto Praia. For a few more years, publications outside Portugal and Brazil (e.g. Sweden, Norway and the US) and in languages (e.g. Swedish, partly English) primarily continued to use the pre-1911 form. The older spelling continued to be used in some Cape Verdean creoles.

Aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral boarded a hydroplane, the Lusitânia for the First aerial crossing of the South Atlantic which had Praia (then Porto Praia) and the harbor as its stop, it started from Lisbon. The plane came from Porto Grande Bay near the island of São Vicente on April 17 and stopped at the harbor near the city and later left for Fernando de Noronha Islands on their way to Rio de Janeiro, at the time capital of Brazil.[10]

Before 1962, the harbor had a long pier at Gamboa, it also had another wooden pier and a mole by the Plateau. By the harbor had a customs house which is now the Capeverdean National Archives Building.[11] As Gamboa beach was enlarged with additional sands, the Port of Praia moved to the area of Ponta de VIsconde 1 kilometer east, construction started around the beginning of 1960 and was completed in 1962, it started to offer ferry service with other Cape Verdean islands and port activity primarily imports into Cape Verde.[1] Gamboa's sands now extended 100 meters into the harbor covering most of the old pier, another pier would be built.

In the same time, the urban area was getting larger, in the 1940s, the built up area reached Gamboa, from around 1960 to 1980, the urban sprawl headed all the way to Ponta Temerosa adding the islet to it, in around 1970, the urban sprawl reached Achada Grande Leite and Praia's Refinery, that part of the harbor up to Ponta das Bicudas consisted of open space, industrial buildings began to appear in 2012 and around the promontory is now in a process of being a fully built up/greenspace area.

After independence on July 5, 1975, the port became owned by ENAPOR . Until 1986, the port was a rectangular shape and its length was east-west, it underwent expansion and went to the latitude of the nearby islet and its length became north to south, the point was enlarged by 600 meters.[1] In 2002, Avenida Combatentes da Liberdade da Patria went under construction and finished in 2003, it was the extension of what was Rua do Porto and encircles the west of the harbor, two rotaries exists in the northern part, before there was never a road in the area between the plateau and the river.

Shipwreck of the French fishing ship in 2012, its remains of the wreck have disappeared

Three recent shipwrecks occurred at the front of the mouth of Ribeira da Trindade, first in around the 1990s, then a second one in around 2004 and a third one in 2005, a French fishing boat sunk very close to the on the boundary with Achada Grande to the east, the weather and sea conditions made the boat rusty and in 2014, its remains disappeared. The right one disappeared in 2009 and the left one disappeared in 2010 and only a tiny remain is left.

In 2012, the port underwent another expansion and was finished in early 2014,[1] it quadrupled it size with additional cargo space, the point was relocated 400 meters south and is now south of the islet, its length and width are larger that the largest islet within Santiago along with its size, the depths are about 3 meters in the middle and 5 to 7 meters at the end.

Nature

The harbor has different fauna within and outside including birds such as the Cape Verde (Iago) sparrow (Passer iagoensis) where it was first described and the Cape Verde warbler. It was the place that the Cape Verde gregory (Stegastes imbricatus) was first described founded even in other parts of the East Atlantic from the Canary Islands and Senegal down to Angola. In the harbor has marine fauna, the rarest is the Two-banded seabream (Diplodus prayensis) and was the area where it was described.

Panoramics

It is one part of the city that offers beautiful panoramics including the southern part, at Prainha and Gamboa, it offers a view of Praia and Achada Grande and in the east offers the view of the west of Praia along with Monte Vermelho and the south of the island.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Port of Praia" (in Portuguese). ENAPOR. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  2. ↑ Sugden 185-86
  3. ↑ Jacques-Nicolas Bellin; Pieter de Hondt (1747). "Carte des Isles du Cap Verd = Kaart van de Eilanden van Kabo Verde" (in French).
  4. ↑ Theal (1897), p.181.
  5. ↑ James (1837), Vol. 6, p. 261-264
  6. ↑ "Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle" (PDF). 1844.
  7. ↑ Roberts, Edmund (1837). Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 19–20.
  8. ↑ Dosseray, J. (1888). Islas de Cabo Verde. Detail from a map Nuevo mapa de España y Portugal y de sus colonias (in Spanish).
  9. ↑ "Relatório das Bases da Reforma Ortográfica" (PDF). Diário de Governo. 12 September 1911.
  10. ↑ Pereira, Armand F. ""Summary of the First Southern Atlantic Crossing (1922) by the Portuguese Aviators Gago COUTINHO and Sacadura CABRAL on a Fairey-17 Single Engine Hydroplane"". HoneyMooney.com. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Cape Verdean National Archives, the ANCV" (in Portuguese). Casa do Comunes.

Bibliography

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