Admiral’s Waterfall #2: A Man with a (Com)Mission
The cache is hidden about half way along, and just off the west side of, the trail. At this point the trail is still contouring across the side of Baviannskloof before stepped rocks lead up past the top of the falls – which can be accessed by a small scramble down from the trail - and on to the end of the track at the weir.
To reach the cache location:park roadside on Barnard Street near S 34 11.675 E 18 25.443and head up the trail past the location of GC7HF65 Admiral's Waterfall #1: Historic Footpath and on to this cache.
(continued from #1) Sir Jahleel Brenton was born in Rhode Island USA, the son of Rear-Admiral Jahleel Brenton (1729-1802), who belonged to a loyalist family which suffered the loss of most of its property in the insurrection of the American colonies. He was a lieutenant in the British navy when the war began, and emigrated to the mother country with his family.
After a long and active service in the navy and being severely wounded during a battle outside Naples in 1801, he was made a baronet in 1812 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1815.
After recovering from his wounds, he was unfit for further service at sea and so was made Commissioner of the Dockyard at Port Mahon, and then at the Cape of Good Hope(located in Simon’s Town), and was afterwards appointed lieutenant governor of Greenwich Hospital till 1840. He attained flag rank of Vice Admiral of the White in 1830 and was promoted to Rear Admiral of the Blue in 1840.
He left England for the Cape on 1 January 1815 and arrived on 12 March 1815. The fascinating details of his life and work in the Cape Colony can be found here(pp428-629) in Memoir of the Life and Services of Vice-Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, Baronet, K.C.B. by Henry Raikes (1782-1854).
[After his arrival] . . . ‘Sir Jahleel Brenton, on inspecting the two bays, Table Bay and Simon's Bay, entirely concurred with Commissioner Shield upon the expediency of giving up the former altogether; but recommended, that on surrendering the buildings there to the Colonial Government it should be with the
understanding, that if required at any future period of war, they should be again restored to the Naval Department.
Whilst the dock-yard was in Table Bay, no ship could venture to strip her lower masts, or heave down, from the uncertainty of the weather and the rapidity with which a gale succeeds a calm, and the glassy surface is changed into a tremendous sea rolling in upon a dead lee shore. The loss of the Sceptre there in 1 795, and of several large merchant vessels in the course of the seven years which Sir Jahleel Brenton passed there, are evident proofs of the dangers incurred almost at all seasons of the year in this bay; whereas in Simon's Bay, scarcely an instance occurred during the whole of that time of a vessel driving from her anchors. . .’
Whilst at the Cape he also surveyed and declared Knysna Lagoon as a harbour in 1815. The nearby seaside resort of Brenton-on-Sea is home to the endangered Brenton Blue butterfly.
He left after over 6 years’ service on 6 November 1821 arriving back in England on 1 January 1822, 7 years to the day after leaving. Twoislets of the St Croix archipelago off the Port Elizabeth coast in Algoa Bay, Jahleel Island and Brenton Island, are named after him.