Lüderitz Bay or Lüderitzbaai (german: Lüderitzbucht), also known as Angra Pequena (, "small cove"), is a bay in the coast of

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The city of

Lüderitz Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. The town is known for its colonial architecture, includ ...

is located at the edge of the bay.

Geography

The bay is indented and complex in structure. It opens to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in the west. Lüderitz town is located in the southern shore of the inner eastern bay, which is known as ''Angra Pequena'' in Portuguese and opens towards the north. Further west Griffith Bay, a deep inlet, stretches southwards in the southern part. The bay west of 'Angra Point' is known as Shearwater Bay, the location of a proposed port for the export of amongst other things, coal from

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

. This requires the construction of the 1600 km Trans Kalahari Railway. There are two islands facing Agate Beach in the northeastern part of the bay, Penguin Island and Seal Island. In the southern part of the bay, a course has been created to hold the

Lüderitz Speed Challenge The Lüderitz Speed Challenge is an annual speed sailing event, held since 2007 in Lüderitz, Namibia, during the southern hemisphere spring. It is observed by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) and the International Sailing Federat ...

, an annual speed sailing event.

History

The easternmost bay was named ''Angra Pequena'' when first mapped in 1487 by

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

explorer Bartolomeu Dias, although in some maps it appeared as ''Angra de São Christóvão''. In 1883 the bay area was made into a

trading station A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

trader

Adolf Lüderitz Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz (16 July 1834 – end of October 1886) was a German merchant and the founder of German South West Africa, Imperial Germany's first colony. The coastal town of Lüderitz, located in the ǁKaras Region of southern N ...

. He renamed it

and concluded treaties with the neighbouring chiefs, who ceded large tracts of country to the newcomers. Under the belief that

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

was about to claim the area as a protectorate, Lüderitz transferred his rights over the bay on 24 April 1884 to the German Imperial Government, and on the following 7 August Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proclaimed a German

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its int ...

over the station and the surrounding area. Renamed ''Lüderitzbucht'' (''Lüderitz Bay'') by the Germans, the location then became a naval base for

German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...

, modern day

. The two islands off Agate Beach, rich in guano deposits, were annexed by

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

in 1867 and added to

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

in 1874 as part of the offshore territory known as

Penguin Islands The Penguin Islands ( af, Pikkewyn-eilande, german: Pinguininseln) are a historical group of mostly scattered islands and rocks situated along a stretch of along the coastline of Namibia. Not forming a geographic whole, the Namibian governm ...

References

{{Authority control History of Namibia German South West Africa Lüderitz Bays of Namibia Portuguese colonisation in Africa

Geography

History

See also

References