Lüderitz
Encyclopedia
Lüderitz is a harbour town
in south-west Namibia
, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa
. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island
.
and some of the surrounding land on behalf of Adolf Lüderitz
, a Hanseat
from Bremen in Germany
, from the local Nama
chief. Lüderitz began its life as a trading post
, with other activities in fishing
and guano
-harvesting. In 1909, after the discovery of diamond
s nearby, Lüderitz enjoyed a sudden surge of prosperity. Today, however, diamonds are mostly found elsewhere and offshore, and Lüderitz has lost a lot of this interest.
The harbour has a very shallow rock bottom, making it unusable for modern ship
s; this led to Walvis Bay
becoming the centre of the Namibian shipping industry. Recently, however, the addition of a new quay has allowed larger fishing vessels the dock at Lüderitz. The town has also re-styled itself in an attempt to lure tourists to the area, which includes a new waterfront
area for shops and office
s.
The town is known for its colonial architecture, including some Art Nouveau
work, and for wildlife including seals, penguin
s, flamingo
s and ostrich
es. It is also home to a museum and to the Lüderitz Speed Challenge
, and formerly lay at the end of a railway line to Keetmanshoop
.
Lüderitz was the starting point for explorer and sailor Amyr Klink
's successful solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean
, rowing
for 101 days all the way to the Brazil
ian coast with no other form of propulsion, in 1984.
In April 2009, an oil spill from an off-coast oil tanker spilled
, risking hundreds of African Penguin
s and other flora and fauna.
of Kolmanskop
. This previously bustling diamond town is now abandoned, and fights a constant struggle against being buried under the shifting sand
dune
s of the Namib desert
.
Another ghost town called Elizabeth Bay lies 30 km to the south.
. The paper, which was started as a source of free English-language reading material, is run by volunteers from the British gap year charity Project Trust. Recently the newspaper went online http://www.buchternews.com and new initiatives like a forum for the community http://www.buchterforum.com are set-up by the volunteers.
Mercury Island
, Ichaboe Island, Halifax Island and the Possession Islands support the entire Namibian breeding population of Cape Gannets Morus Capensis, 96% of the Namibian population of the endangered African Penguin
Spheniscus Demersus, and nearly one quarter of the global breeding population of Crowned Cormorants Phalacrocorax coronatus.
Approximately 80% of the global population of the endangered Bank Cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus breeds on Mercury Island and in the Ichaboe Islands.
(BWn, according to the Köppen climate classification
), with pleasant temperatures throughout the year. The average annual precipitation is 23 mm (0.905511811023622 in).
, the only international sporting event held in the town. This is an annual month-long speed sailing event held in the last quarter of the year under the auspices of the International Sailing Federation
(ISAF) World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
Construction of a new port at Shearwater Bay
, 30 km south of Lüderitz, has been proposed for the export of coal from Botswana
with a 1600 km railway connecting the two.
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in south-west Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island
Shark Island, Namibia
Shark Island is a small peninsula adjacent to the coastal city of Lüderitz in Namibia. Its area is about 40 hectares...
.
Overview
The town was founded in 1883 when Heinrich Vogelsang purchased Angra PequenaAngra Pequena
Angra Pequena was a small coastal area in what is now known as Lüderitz, Namibia.First discovered by Europeans in 1487 by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias. On April 10, 1883 Heinrich Vogelsang first landed at Angra Pequena...
and some of the surrounding land on behalf of Adolf Lüderitz
Adolf Lüderitz
Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz was a German merchant and founder of the first German colony in Southwest Africa....
, a Hanseat
Hanseaten (class)
The Hanseaten is a collective term for the heirachy group consisting of elite individuals and families of prestigious rank who constituted the ruling class of the free imperial city of Hamburg, conjointly with the equal First Families of the free imperial cities Bremen and Lübeck...
from Bremen in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, from the local Nama
Namaqua
Nama are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama now speak Afrikaans. The Nama are the largest group of the Khoikhoi people, most of whom have largely disappeared as a group,...
chief. Lüderitz began its life as a trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
, with other activities in fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
-harvesting. In 1909, after the discovery of diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
s nearby, Lüderitz enjoyed a sudden surge of prosperity. Today, however, diamonds are mostly found elsewhere and offshore, and Lüderitz has lost a lot of this interest.
The harbour has a very shallow rock bottom, making it unusable for modern ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
s; this led to Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay , is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies...
becoming the centre of the Namibian shipping industry. Recently, however, the addition of a new quay has allowed larger fishing vessels the dock at Lüderitz. The town has also re-styled itself in an attempt to lure tourists to the area, which includes a new waterfront
Shore
A shore or shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In Physical Oceanography a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past and present, while the beach is at the edge of the shore,...
area for shops and office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
s.
The town is known for its colonial architecture, including some Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
work, and for wildlife including seals, penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
s, flamingo
Flamingo
Flamingos or flamingoes are gregarious wading birds in the genus Phoenicopterus , the only genus in the family Phoenicopteridae...
s and ostrich
Ostrich
The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
es. It is also home to a museum and to the Lüderitz Speed Challenge
Lüderitz Speed Challenge
The Lüderitz Speed Challenge is an annual speed sailing event, held since 2007 in Lüderitz, Namibia, in the southern hemisphere spring. The event is organised by ESF Events, managed and owned by Frederic Dasse and French kitesurfer Sebastien Cattelan, and is observed by the World Sailing Speed...
, and formerly lay at the end of a railway line to Keetmanshoop
Keetmanshoop
Keetmanshoop is a city in Karas Region, southern Namibia, lying on the Trans-Namib Railway from Windhoek to Upington in South Africa. It is named after Johann Keetman, a German industrialist and founder of the city....
.
Lüderitz was the starting point for explorer and sailor Amyr Klink
Amyr Klink
Amyr Klink is an explorer and sailor. One of his projects, "Antarctica 360", was circumnavigating the Antarctic continent on his own, in 79 days in 1998....
's successful solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, rowing
Watercraft rowing
Watercraft rowing is the act of propelling a boat using the motion of oars in the water. The difference between paddling and rowing is that with rowing the oars have a mechanical connection with the boat whereas with paddling the paddles are hand-held with no mechanical connection.This article...
for 101 days all the way to the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian coast with no other form of propulsion, in 1984.
In April 2009, an oil spill from an off-coast oil tanker spilled
2009 Lüderitz oil spill
The 2009 Lüderitz oil spill began in April 2009 off the coast of Lüderitz, Namibia. It affected 156 African Penguins, with many more possibly threatened. The oil spill is in the area where the Meob Bay fishing trawler sank in June 2002, killing 19 seamen. The boat sank after a rope got caught in...
, risking hundreds of African Penguin
African Penguin
The African Penguin , also known as the Black-footed Penguin is a species of penguin, confined to southern African waters. It is known as Brilpikkewyn in Afrikaans, Inguza or Unombombiya in Xhosa, Manchot Du Cap in French and Pingüino Del Cabo in Spanish...
s and other flora and fauna.
Ghost towns
Just outside of Lüderitz lies the ghost townGhost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Kolmanskop
Kolmanskop
Kolmanskop is a ghost town in the Namib desert in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement...
. This previously bustling diamond town is now abandoned, and fights a constant struggle against being buried under the shifting sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
s of the Namib desert
Namib Desert
The Namib Desert is a desert in Namibia and southwest Angola that forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, the largest game reserve in Africa. The name "Namib" is of Nama origin and means "vast place"...
.
Another ghost town called Elizabeth Bay lies 30 km to the south.
Media
Lüderitz has a local monthly newspaper, Buchter NewsBuchter News
The Buchter News was created in 1987 by volunteers of the Scottish gap-year organization Project Trust, as the local newspaper of Lüderitz. Starting off as a newsletter for the Benguela community it soon turned in to a monthly newspaper....
. The paper, which was started as a source of free English-language reading material, is run by volunteers from the British gap year charity Project Trust. Recently the newspaper went online http://www.buchternews.com and new initiatives like a forum for the community http://www.buchterforum.com are set-up by the volunteers.
 |
Conservation
The coastline in the area is recognised by Bird Life and other global conservation groups as one of the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) for important coastal seabird breeding.Mercury Island
Mercury Island
Mercury Island is a small rocky island off The Diamond Coast, Namibia. Despite its small size it is recognised by Bird Life and other global conservation groups as one of the Important Bird Areas for its important coastal seabird breeding.-Situation:...
, Ichaboe Island, Halifax Island and the Possession Islands support the entire Namibian breeding population of Cape Gannets Morus Capensis, 96% of the Namibian population of the endangered African Penguin
African Penguin
The African Penguin , also known as the Black-footed Penguin is a species of penguin, confined to southern African waters. It is known as Brilpikkewyn in Afrikaans, Inguza or Unombombiya in Xhosa, Manchot Du Cap in French and Pingüino Del Cabo in Spanish...
Spheniscus Demersus, and nearly one quarter of the global breeding population of Crowned Cormorants Phalacrocorax coronatus.
Approximately 80% of the global population of the endangered Bank Cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus breeds on Mercury Island and in the Ichaboe Islands.
Climate
Lüderitz has a mild desert climateDesert climate
A desert climate , also known as an arid climate, is a climate that does not meet the criteria to be classified as a polar climate, and in which precipitation is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at most a very scanty scrub.An area that features this climate usually experiences less than...
(BWn, according to the Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
), with pleasant temperatures throughout the year. The average annual precipitation is 23 mm (0.905511811023622 in).
See also
Lüderitz is home to the Lüderitz Speed ChallengeLüderitz Speed Challenge
The Lüderitz Speed Challenge is an annual speed sailing event, held since 2007 in Lüderitz, Namibia, in the southern hemisphere spring. The event is organised by ESF Events, managed and owned by Frederic Dasse and French kitesurfer Sebastien Cattelan, and is observed by the World Sailing Speed...
, the only international sporting event held in the town. This is an annual month-long speed sailing event held in the last quarter of the year under the auspices of the International Sailing Federation
International Sailing Federation
The International Sailing Federation is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the world governing body for the sport of sailing....
(ISAF) World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
Transport
- Railway stations in NamibiaRailway stations in Namibia- Maps :* * -Existing:* Ondangwa - junction** Oshakati* Tsumeb* Otavi - junction for Grootfontein* Grootfontein - branch terminus.* Outjo - railhead* Otjiwarongo - junction for Outjo* Omaruru* Kalkfeld - short siding* Seeheim - junction for Lüderitz...
Construction of a new port at Shearwater Bay
Shearwater Bay
Shearwater Bay is located near Lüderitz in Namibia. Elizabeth Bay is halfway there, and Pomona is about in the same place.- Transport :It is the location of a proposed port for the export of amongst other things, coal from Botswana. This requires the construction of the 1600km Trans Kalahari...
, 30 km south of Lüderitz, has been proposed for the export of coal from Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
with a 1600 km railway connecting the two.