Henry J. Neils’
Travelogue of 1959 Great World Cruise
Henry J. Neils was a businessman from Minneapolis. He wrote a daily diary of his voyage on the 1959 Great World cruise. Presumably, the 30 faded typewritten sheets had been duplicated for distribution to his employees.
The transcribed document now forms 25 pages of the Timeline, accessible from links on the January, February, March and April 1959 month pages. This was the first special feature to be added to the Timeline as it entered its 2nd year of being on-line.
Henry's quoted text throughout the site start with this indicator: H.J.N.…
Henry J Neils’ Travelogue 11 February 1959
Cape Town, Republic of South Africa
H.J.N.…
Temperature 78°F
Elevation Sea Level
Population 709,000
The Caronia's officers and crew did a good job bringing her into the narrow harbour entrance. A cross-wind was blowing
at fifty miles per hour. Only a few passengers were on deck. They were bracing themselves against the wind and rail,
trying to steady their cameras and get some pictures in the early dawn.
Table Mountain, 3,549feet, was clearly visible to the left as was Signal Hill to the right. The City is picturesquely located in a “U” shape around the base of the mountain and around Signal Hill. It presents a beautiful panorama looking down on it from above.
Photo: © 1965 Peter Stevens
H.J.N.…
Cape Town is located 6,000-miles by sea from London and 6,300 miles from New York. Founded about 300 years ago by the
Dutch as a supply base or “Half Way House to the East” for ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, it
has become a very important port.
Its population is made up from many origins, Whites 275,000; Bantus (natives from Northern Africa) 65,000; Coloured (mixture other than white) 350,000; Asiatics, the Balance.
The ratio differs in various cities and provinces of which there are four in the Union of South Africa - viz.
- Province
- Area Square Miles
- Cape of Good Hope
- 277,000
- Natal
- 35,500
- Transvaal
- 10,500
- Orange Free State
- 49,500
- Total
- 472,500
The total population of this Union is 14,100,000 as follows…
- Background
- Populace
- Whites
- 2,900,000
- Bantu
- 9,300,000
- Coloured
- 1,300,000
- Asiatics
- 420,000
- Others (Various)
- 180,000
H.J.N.…
It is significant that five and a half million of the Bantus are Christians. This is a tremendous blessing on the
perseverance of the missionaries in spite of many hardships and dangers. Church membership is approximately
as follows: Methodist 1,040,000; Anglican, 600,000; Roman Catholic, 460,000; Lutheran 420,000; Reformed 282,000.
The “Castle” is the oldest, building in Cape Town, dating back to 1666. It was a fort and later the seat of Colonial Government. It is well preserved with all of the furniture, fixtures, tableware and paintings of Cape Town and the harbour of that date, and also many portraits of important personalities, all very interesting because it dates back to our own New York City.
H.J.N.…
The South African Museum contains life-size figures of the Bushmen that inhabited the Cape when Europeans first arrived.
They were very primitive in their weapons, utensils and scout clothing, similar to our North American Indian but, even
more so because they didn't have the severe winters to contend with. This museum also contains the most elaborate exhibits
of the tremendous variety of bird, animal, reptile, fish and insect life.
Traffic in the City is something to write home about. First of all, vehicles move on the left-hand side. That alone is frustrating to one of us. You expect a collision on every crossing and curve, but in good English tradition we came out of it all with a whole skin. The pedestrians pay little attention to traffic rules, crossing streets anywhere, everywhere and at any time.
Photo: 1959 World Cruise Souvenir Book
Integration is a very real issue here. It is a necessity as can be seen from the unbalanced ratio of Bantu and Coloured to White. Residential areas are also very strictly bounded between Whites and the other population.
H.J.N.…
There are beautiful parks and drives on the east side of the Cape, also pure white beaches
- the sand having been ground very fine by hundreds if not thousands of years of churning
breakers from the Indian Ocean. Homes show the Dutch influences in design, but the business
buildings indicate a modern trend.
The University of Cape Town, donated to the City by Cecil John Rhodes has a gorgeous location, high in the foothills, with Table Mountain as a backdrop. It is world famous. Cecil Rhodes selected the site. His judgement has never been questioned. It presents a fine picture. I hope mine turns out well.
At 4.00pm our special train, consisting of six sleeping cars, a lounge car, dining car (the only coach with air conditioning), refrigerator car and personnel car, left for Victoria Falls, 1,650 miles north. Until dark the countryside was very pleasant - fruit trees, vineyards, shrubbery and flowers.
The next morning we were on the central plateau. Altitude approximately 3,000 feet. This is flat country like eastern Montana and the Arizona desert. Sagebrush, called Karoo covers most of the area, although grass is very abundant. This is cattle and sheep country, but there are no fences except along the railway to keep the cattle off the right-of-way.