Lüderitz Bay (; ), also known as Angra Pequena (, "small cove"), is a bay in the coast of

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. 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. Lüderitz had a population of 16,125 people in 2023. Th ...

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 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 ...

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, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. 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, an annual speed sailing event.

History

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

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 ...

, although in some maps it appeared as ''Angra de São Christóvão''. In 1883 the bay area was made into a trading station by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

trader Adolf Lüderitz. 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: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

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 Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

proclaimed a German

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), 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 ...

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 () 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. German rule over this territory was punctuated by ...

, modern day

. On 11 December 1904 the Russian fleet proceeding to the pacific to fight the

Battle of Tsushima The Battle of Tsushima (, ''Tsusimskoye srazheniye''), also known in Japan as the , was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the ...

of stopped at the bay to take on coal. The process was delayed by poor weather and the fleet left on 17 December. The two islands off Agate Beach, rich in

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

deposits, were annexed by

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in 1867 and added to

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

in 1874 as part of the offshore territory known as Penguin Islands.

References

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

Geography

History

See also

References