Port Alfred is a small town with a population of just under 20,000 in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated on the eastern seaboard of the country at the mouth of the Kowie River, almost exactly half-way between the larger cities of Port Elizabeth and East London and 30 km West of Cannon Rocks.
Port Alfred is home to Southern Africa’s largest air school, 43 Air School.
Port Alfred was established in the early 1820s by British settlers who were moved into the area by Lord Charles Somerset as a buffer between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa people. Originally it was two separate towns (settlers arriving on the west bank in 1820 named their settlement Port Kowie, and those arriving on the east bank named theirs Port Frances.
Later, in 1860, when Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred visited, the name was changed to honour him.
The port
In 1839, William Cock started to block the natural river mouth to the east and canalise the present opening to the sea. By 1841 South Africa’s first man-made harbour was opened after completion of the stone lined channel between the ocean and the Kowie river.[7] This allowed high-masted sailing ships with their heavy cargo to dock at the wharf.