Table Bay (

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

: ''Tafelbaai'') is a natural bay on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

overlooked by

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and is at the northern end of the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good ...

, which stretches south to the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

. It was named because it is dominated by the flat-topped

Table Mountain Table Mountain (; ) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, cableway or hik ...

History

Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias ( – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the Cape Agulhas, southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lies ...

was the first European to explore this region in 1486. The bay, although famous for centuries as a haven for ships, is actually a rather poor natural harbour and is exposed to storm waves from the northwest. Many sailing ships seeking refuge in the bay during the 17th and 18th centuries were driven ashore by winter storms. The Dutch colonists nevertheless persisted with their efforts on the shores of Table Bay, because good natural harbours along this coastline are almost non-existent. The best of them,

Saldanha Bay Saldanha Bay () is a natural harbour on the south-western coast of South Africa. The town that developed on the northern shore of the bay, also called Saldanha, Western Cape, Saldanha, was incorporated with five other towns into the Saldanha Bay ...

, lacked fresh water. Simon's Bay was well protected from westerly winter storms and swells, but more exposed to summer southeasterly storms and difficult to access overland from Cape Town. Hout Bay was small and exposed to the prevailing southwesterly swell. Eventually a harbour was built in Table Bay by a process of

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

and was protected from storm waves by breakwaters. The older part of this development is called the Victoria Dock; the newer part, the Duncan Dock.

Robben Island Robben Island () is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch language, Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrika ...

, where

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

was imprisoned for decades, is in this bay. The bay's beaches were oiled following an accident involving the Dutch tanker Sliedrecht in November 1953. The vessel moved offshore to pump out 1,000 tonnes of oil that had been fouled with seawater after the initial impact.

Shipwrecks

** RMS Athens, 1865. ** Thermopylae (ship) ** SS S.A. Seafarer, 1966. ** Nieuwe Rhoon, 1776 ** Perseverance (ship), 1826 ** Forfarshire (ship), 1864 ** SS Aotea, 1911. ** SS Hypatia, 1929. ** Fong Chung No.11, 1975. ** MV Daeyang Family, 1986. ** Afrikaner (ship), 1993.

Geography

Robben Island

Bathymetry

Navigational hazards

*Whale Rock: The site of several shipwrecks and groundings. *Green Point: The site of several shipwrecks and groundings.

Image gallery

File:Aernout Smit Table Bay, 1683 William Fehr Collection Cape Town.jpg, Dutch ships off Table Bay in the 17th century File:Pieter van der Aa Cape of Good Hope.jpg, Looking over sailing ships in Table Bay in 1727 with

in the background File:Cape Town & Table Bay 1882.jpg, Map of Table Bay (1882) File:IMRAY(1884) p0707 TABLE BAY.jpg, Map of the Docks and Infrastructure (1884) File:Capetown table false bay.jpg, Cape Town from space, looking south over

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

with Hangklip Point (top left),

Cape Point Cape Point () is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Africa. Table M ...

(top right) and Table Bay south and east of the clearly visible, circular

, February 1995. File:Satellite image of Cape peninsula.jpg, Synthetic perspective with 2× exaggerated elevation, from satellite elevation and image data. Looking east over

and

(behind) with

(front left),

(centre front) and

(front right). File:Ship Defense at Anchor in Table Bay.jpg, Sketch of Cape Town from the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

Ship

Defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

, en route from the Downs to

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

, anchored in Table Bay on January 24, 1739.

References

{{Authority control Bays of South Africa Maritime history of South Africa