The Plumari Heritage Museum showcases an extensive collection of local historical items, as well as local geology, fossils, archaeology, and Bushman rock engravings. Beyond the immediate impact of the Oxwagon and carriage collections there are smaller gems, three of which we highlight for Heritage Day.
The Voortrekker muzzle-loading rifle
Known as a “Bobbejaanboud sanna”: “Bobbejaanboud” refers to the stock, which is shaped like the thigh of a baboon; and the “sanna” ” is a colloquial term derived from the Dutch word “snaphaan” or “snap lock” which referred to the type of flintlock mechanism used in the rifle. The ‘au Sanna’ is of much significance as it was primarily with this type of weapon that the Trekkers opened the interior of SA. It was a flintlock, muzzle-loading rifle, often with a hair trigger and a stouter stock than those used in Europe. The barrel was up to 1,21 metres long and the bore varied from 17,8 mm to 24,6 mm, making it a powerful but unwieldy weapon. The rifle fired ball or shot (Iopers). The shot consisted of 70 to 90 ‘Iopers’ sown into a bag. The effective range of a ball round was up to 455 metres. The extraordinarily long barrel enabled the Boer marksman to reload it on horseback without dismounting, the end of the stock being protected from damage by a thick brass plate.
Walker’s Cherub III Ship-log
At first glance this looks like a small brass clock with a broken mechanical winder at the back. Courtesy of a visitor to the Museum it’s true purpose was revealed. This instrument is a recorder for determining distance travelled and thus ship’s speed. It is made of brass with a ceramic dial, with the main scale marked from 0 to 100 miles and two inset dials marked from 0 to 1000 miles and 0 to 1 mile. It has a fixing plate, on which it can turn, with which it would have been attached to a suitable part of the ship, typically the taffrail, the rail at the stern of a ship. As a result, this type of log was often called a taffrail log. At some point the original dial was replaced with a small clock which disguised the identity of the instrument.
Ship’s log in the Museum, with the original instruments replaced with a clock
Thomas Ferdinand Walker (1837–1921) first patented the Cherub log in 1878 (no. 4369). It was one of the first logs in which the recorder was placed on board the ship rather than being part of the rotor. The Cherub Mark III series proved to be very successful and was produced in great numbers between 1930 and 1994.
The recorder would have been connected to a rotor that was towed behind the ship. The revolutions of the rotor registered on the indicator, thus measuring the distance and speed travelled. For this model, 900 revolutions of the rotor registered as 1 nautical mile.
Rainfall Register March 1937 to April 1945
Rainfall Registers for the farm Nooitgedacht 121: Station “Foothills 122”
A recent donation by Errol Sanders is a collection of twelve original Rainfall Registers for the farm Nooitgedacht 121, now part of the Plumari Private Reserve. A total of fourteen Registers were kept, day by day, from 1915 to 2001 – eighty-seven years of history unique to the area. Two Registers are missing: May 1978 to September 1981; and April 1988 to August 1991.
Rainfall Register March 1937 to April 1945
Rainfall Record for September 1938 – rainfall measured in inches
Comments were added on some of the days, where appropriate, and they make fascinating reading. The challenge for the Museum Curator is to capture the data and make it into a useful and sortable database. 24 years, from January 1915 to December 1939 has been analysed. The method being used is to capture the rainfall and significant comments in MS Excel, which is then presented in a Pivot Table. For example, the rainfall over the years for a certain month can be sorted, such as Heritage Month – September. From September 1915 to September 1939, the following interesting facts emerge:
- The average rainfall during September was 18.4 mm compared to the current level of September rainfall of 20 mm (from Internet sources)
- The highest recorded rainfall for a September was 78 mm in 1925. There were six years where “nil” rain was recorded
- The earliest first Spring rains happened on 1st September in 1918 and again in 1933. First Spring rains generally fall after 10th September, with the average being 15th September
Looking at the annual data, the average rainfall was 742.5 mm compared to today’s 751 mm. Four years had rainfall over 1,000 mm (1915, 1918, 1925, and 1929). The highest was 1918 with 1,168 mm recorded. The recorder’s comment for 12th November 1925 was: “210mm fell in 90 minutes accompanied by a little hail. The sheep remained out as spruit was full & the jackals had 6 big ewes & 9 lambs”.
There were seven severe droughts recorded, the worst being from 1926 to 1927. The lowest annual rainfall was only 364 mm in 1935. The comment for November 1935 was, “The drought has been very trying. Fountains & springs weakening considerably and stock falling off. Crops have suffered as well. High winds and severe dust storms”.