The idea of Durban as a port dates back to 1824 when the first European settlers made a landing with the intention of setting up a trading post.

The Bay of Natal (Durban Bay) was one of the few natural harbours available along the east coast of southern Africa between Algoa Bay and Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay).

Vasco da Gama is said to have sighted the Bay on Christmas Day, 1497, when he hove to off the Bluff with his three small ships San Gabriel, San Raphael and Berrio, before naming the land Natal as a mark of respect for the Nativity. However subsequent studies by Professor Eric Axelson have suggested da Gama's 'discovery' was actually further south in the region of the present Port St Johns.

Ships called sporadically over several centuries, and who knows which honest merchantman or perhaps pirate ship sheltered behind the protection of the Bluff, that wooded peninsular that forms a dramatic landmark of present Durban.

First harbour master

The first harbour master was appointed in either 1839 or 1840 (true records do not exist) so perhaps Durban as a port should be considered from this time. Once the notorious bar - a sandbar across the entrance channel - had been 'conquered' (a story in its own right) Durban went on to rapidly become Africa's busiest general cargo port and home to one of the largest and busiest container terminals in the Southern Hemisphere.

Situated at Longitude 31º 02'E and Latitude 29º 52'S, the port is 680 nautical miles north-east of Cape Agulhas and occupies the natural expanse of Durban Bay - an area of 1850ha, with the water area being 892ha in extent at high tide and 679ha at low. From the Point to the opposite side of the entrance channel on the Bluff is 21km, with the emerging Point waterfront development and central business district to the north and northeast, Maydon Wharf in the west, the Bayhead ship repair area in the south and the Bluff Peninsular forming the southeast.

Durban Bay also served a different kind of purpose in the 1930s until late in the 1950s when it was used as a base for flying boats. First it was the graceful Short C class of Imperial Airways, for Durban was the terminus of the first commercial air route between South Africa and Europe. During World War II Short Sunderlands and Catalina flying boats took over reconnaissance duties flying from their base at Bayhead, which lasted well into the 1950s.

The port has a total of 59 effective berths excluding those used by fishing vessels and ship repair. The bay also has an inner anchorage. A single buoy mooring at Isipingo on the southeast side of the Bluff caters for very large crude carriers (VLCC) that are too large to enter the port.

A total of 302km of rail tracks extends throughout the port area along with several major marshalling yards.

The port of Durban performs a critical role within the city of Durban as an employer of people. It services its own industrial and commercial region (the second largest in SA), in addition to much of SA's hinterland including the majority of Gauteng traffic and a significant amount of traffic for neighbouring countries.

In response to demand the port of Durban is creating more container handling facilities including a second container terminal on Pier One, but space will continue to be reserved for breakbulk and bulk cargoes. The port is served with excellent rail and road links to Gauteng in the west and points south and north.

Salisbury Island, which was formerly a full naval base until it was downgraded in 2002, now contains a naval station and military base. The future of this facility is uncertain as mounting pressure on space for cargo handling (motor vehicles) is likely to see the naval station moving to a new and as yet undetermined site.

Port Limitations:

The port of Durban operates 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The entrance channel has a depth of 12.8m from Chart Datum. The channel width is 122m but plans are advanced to widen the channel by a further 100m commencing in 2007 or 2008. During daylight ships are supposedly restricted to 243.8m length with a maximum width of 35m and a draught of 11.9m, or 12.2m according to tide and harbour master's clearance. Larger vessels are common and ships up to 300m length and 37m beam are regular callers in Durban. Night restrictions are for a ship length of 200m and a beam of 26m, maximum draught of 11.6m. The harbour master has to be consulted for permission regarding larger vessels.

The largest ships to have entered Durban harbour were in the region of 230,000 dwt but even larger vessels are catered for in the outer anchorage. On two occasions in recent years the largest vessel afloat, the 564,650-dwt ULCC tanker Jahre Viking, which has a length of 458m and a beam of 69m underwent repairs or survey while at anchor at the Outer Anchorage off Durban.

Pilotage is compulsory for all vessels from a point three n.miles northeast of the port entrance, with a helicopter performing most pilot transfers, backed up by pilot boat when the helicopter is unavailable. Navigation is subject to VTS (vessels tracking service system) controlled from the Millennium Tower on the Bluff including all shipping movements inside port limits. Tug assistance is required. Draught within the port varies according to location.

Marine Craft:

The port operates a fleet of tugs owned and operated by the National Ports Authority (NPA). Six of these are Schottel type with bollard pull between 34t and 41t - Umzumbe (ex Otto Buhr), Umsunduzi (ex Dupel Erasmus), Umvoti (ex Bertie Groenewald), Nonoti (ex Jannie Oelofsen), Inyalazi (ex Piet Aucamp), and Umhlali (ex Bart Grove). Later type tugs of a new series of Voith Schneider 49t bollard pull and built at SA Shipyards in Durban began to be introduced from 2001. The two stationed at Durban are named uThukela and Mkhuze. Two of the older types were subsequently withdrawn.

Each tug is maintained to SAMSA class 8 standard and is equipped for fire fighting and salvage. The fleet handles in excess of 800 ship movements each month and four tugs are usually on duty during daylight hours and two at night. The port also employs one work boat/tug of the Tern class, Royal Tern, which has a bollard pull of 18.7 tons. An Agusta A109 K2 'HPS' twin-engine 8-seat helicopter operated by Balmoral Maintenance Services provides pilotage services. A diesel-powered pilot boat named Tsitsikama operates when the helicopter service is unavailable.

Dredging is performed by the NPA on an ongoing basis in the port and immediately outside the entrance to counter the littoral drift that would otherwise recreate the infamous Bar across the entrance channel. The major work is conducted by a trailing suction hopper dredger named Piper (ex RE Jones), with the dredged sand deposited into a reclamation point on the northern breakwater, from where it is dispersed by the municipality along Durban's northern beaches. Piper loads 2,500 cubic metres at a time.

Other dredgers include the bed leveller dredger named Impisi (ex LL Varley), which operates by dragging a plough across the seabed to move accumulated silt against the wharfside into the adjacent channel. The channels are kept clear with the grab dredger, Crane (ex JF Craig), which uses a grab attached to a crane on the vessel. Crane and Piper also operate at East London and Port Elizabeth.

Hydrographic Survey Vessels used at the Port of Durban are the Ingwegwe and the Swift.

Durban has two floating cranes. Indlovu has a lifting capacity of 235 tonnes at 10m and 125t from 24m. The smaller Imvubu is privately owned by Elgin Brown & Hamer and has a lifting capacity of 60 tonnes at 6.1m or 40.6t at 16.2m from the outboard edge.

The port employs a number of launches and cargo punts including a 100+ passenger harbour boat named Isiponono, which is used for trade and business tours of the port. A pollution boat named Udonti also serves the port. Several private companies provide commercial diving servcies and the port also maintains a fully equipped diving team.

The NSRI, which has moved into a modern station base at the Point, operates several deep-sea and smaller rescue craft.

Port Volumes:

The port of Durban handles the greatest volume of sea-going traffic of any port in southern Africa. For the 2005/06 financial year ended 31 March 2006, the Port of Durban handled a total of 4,551 sea-going ships with a gross tonnage of 94,543,236 which was equal to almost 36 percent of all ports combined.

Cargo handled during the fiscal year 2005/06 amounted to 42,668,119 tonnes, which included oil and petroleum products. This tonnage however excludes containers, which are calculated by the port authority in TEUs only and not by mass. 1.956 million TEUs were handled in Durban during 2005/06 and may be calculated as the equivalent of 26,406,000 tonnes (av 13.5t) which should be included with the gross figure above, giving the port a total tonnage of 69,074 million tonnes of cargo handled.

Total tonnage handled by the port (including the calculation for containers) constituted 43,584,358t of imports, 25,206,730t of exports and 283,371t of transhipment cargo giving a total tonnage for the port of 69,074,000 tonnes.

Bulk cargo handled at the port in 2005/06 was 34,975,264t, of which imports were 26,618,404t, exports were 8,158,057t, and transhipments totalled 198,803t.

Breakbulk cargo totalled 7,692,855 tonnes, of which imports were 3,756,650t, exports 3,854,637t, and transhipments 81,568t.

The combined Durban container terminals handled 1,955,803 TEUs (twenty foot equivalents) during 2005/06 of which imports were 729,069, exports were 729,597 and 440,138 were transhipped. 56,999 TEUs were shipped coastwise. Containers handled at Durban represented 63 percent of the total number of containers handled at South African ports.

The Durban Car Terminal - the country's largest import and export facility for the motor industry - handled 278,000 motor units during the fiscal year 2005/06 (214,000 for 2004/05). SAPO anticipates this figure will reach between 330,000 and 340,000 units during the fiscal year 2006/07.

Port Facilities:

The port of Durban is managed on a common user basis and consists of five business units managed by SA Port Operations (SAPO) - Durban Container Terminal (Africa's busiest), Multi Purpose Terminal, now relocated to the City Terminal (Point), Car Terminal (two berths), and Maydon Wharf Terminal.

A number of other terminals in the port are managed and operated by private companies, including the Bluff Coaling Terminal, the large Island View oil and petroleum complex, the Fresh Produce Terminal at the T-Jetty and another fruit terminal at Maydon Wharf, the Sugar Terminal and Wood Chip Terminal on Maydon Wharf, SA Bulk Terminals (Rennies)plus several other private facilities mostly at Maydon Wharf.

Terminals: grain, sugar, citrus, passenger The port has a well-equipped passenger terminal at N-berth on the T-Jetty for the convenience of cruise ships, which operate mostly between November and May. From the summer of 2006 MSC and Starlight will maintain a cruise ship for all-year cruising at Durban, together with a second ship during the summer months.Cruise ships make us of one or more berths as required and at times the port has as many as three cruise ships in port at one time. An attractive Harbour Expo Market is mounted in the airconditioned N-Shed while cruise ships are in port. Long-term plans foresee a new cruise terminal being built at A berth on the Point, near the Point Waterfront.

Extensive ship repair facilities consist of a graving dock divided by two compartments with a total length of 352.04m and a width of 33.52m at the top, split into an inner dock of 138.68m and an outer dock of 206.9m and serviced by up to five electric cranes from 50t to 10t. Not all these were in service in 2006. Emptying time for the graving dock is 4 hours.

The port has two floating docks - one operated by the NPA with an overall length of 109m, a width of 23.34m and a displaced lifting capacity of 4,500 tonnes, serviced by two 5-tonne capacity cranes. The second floating dock, known as Eldock, is operated by Messrs Elgin Brown & Hamer and is the only privately owned floating dock in South Africa (Elgin has a second similar floating dock at Walvis Bay). Eldock has a length of 155m, a width of 23.5m and a lifting capacity of 8,500t.

Bayhead has two general repair quays in addition to several privately operated and fully equipped repair quays. Bunkers: The port offers bunker facilities as follows: Fuel and gas oil at Island View, New Pier 1 and Pier 2 (container terminal) berths. Gas oil at Island View berths 4,5,6,7 and 8. Two bunkering companies - FFS and Smit Amandla, provide bunker barging services but no bunkers are served outside the port. There is an anchorage outside the port for vessels waiting for berthing or for orders.

Yachting marinas

Durban has three marinas for yachting purposes - the main marina opposite the Esplanade, served by the Point Yacht Club and Royal Natal Yacht Club, the Wilson's Wharf marina used predominantly by motor craft and the Bluff Yacht Club facility in the Silt Canal near Bayhead. A large number of other recreational activities take place in Durban Bay including canoeing and kayaking, parasailing, fishing from boats and bird watching at the Heritage Site (mangrove swamps).