When the American War of Independence erupted in 1777, France and Netherlands sided with America against England. As the Cape was a vital supply and trading station, both the French and the English despatched fleets to take the Cape. The French won the race to the Cape, arriving in June 1781 eleven days before the British. Soon war had broken out between Holland and England. For the following three years the French regiment remained at the Cape to help their allies, the Dutch, to protect it and they assisted with both its fortifications and its social life. After a time there was so much disapproval of the French contribution which included balls, daring fashions, gambling and the manufacture of counterfeit notes, that Le Vaillant remarked “the Dutch would rather have been conquered by the British than saved by the French.” With French advice and assistance, the Dutch East India Company increased their fortifications to secure the settlement against hostile attack. The work was begun with zeal. Most of the citizens of Cape Town came to build the French Lines. After a few days they brought their slaves along to help. After a few more days the burghers stayed at home and sent their slaves to build in their stead. By the end of a fortnight, only the soldiers were left to carry out the work.

The French advised that a line of fortifications be built extending from the sea to Devil’s Peak ( Cape Town), as well as a battery on Kloof Nek ( in Camps Bay). “We can build trenches on top of the col near the little house there, and throw riflemen at intervals into gullies.”

Von Kamptz’s track to Camps Bay was torn up, trenches were dug, and a battery and guardhouse built commanding the beach, manned by the Dutch militia to prevent an enemy landing. The farm left behind by von Kamptz which, ‘in consequence of the cattle grazing there and the vegetables reared, had provided a comfortable income to (Von Kamptz) and his wife’s (former husband) so that it would have been to him a source of subsistence’, now provided the foraging soldiers with that subsistence.  Camps Bay accommodation

The site and two cannons from the original Dutch guardhouse can be seen above Victoria Road on Kloof Road near the Camps Bay School. In 1997 another two 12-pounder cannons were discovered hidden in the vegetation in the Glen. They were too heavy to move and might have languished there for another two hundred years but through Commander Gerry de Vries, the officer commanding SAS Wingfield, the Gun Recovery Programme was launched with the sponsorship of Durr Estates. On a hot December day they were painstakingly hauled back up by naval officer trainees and, restored to their former glory complete with gun carriages built by Lovemore & Co., they were re-erected just over Kloof Nek ( in Camps Bay) on the Camps Bay side of Kloof Road. Finally at 12 noon on 8 April 1998 a cannon was fired again by Warrant Officer Maartin Venter, dressed appropriately in the military uniform of the period complete with three cornered hat.4 A bang, a cloud of smoke and a rope blew off unveiling a plaque giving the story of the guns. They are no longer a menace to any would be invasion force which might have struggled up the isolated wagon track underneath but are a symbol to the cars driving by of the romantic past of Camps Bay.

When the war was over, Von Kamptz returned from Europe to find that the farm with its cattle and vegetables, had gone to rack and ruin. The Government had destroyed his track to prevent the enemy using it to gain access to Cape Town; the property had not been adequately supervised, and the farmers and Hottentots, stationed there to watch out for passing enemy ships, ‘had done no little damage to the place.’ Von Kamptz ‘witnessed with great pain the ruin around him’ and complained to the authorities about the damage. He demanded that they restore his track. The Governor refused to do this, but the Council did agree to buy his farm from him for 10 000 R, in dollars. The compensation was less than von Kamptz had wanted but he agreed to the price on condition that part of the monies be paid to him in Holland and he was allowed to stay on the farm until the crops were in - the damage to the farm could not have been as bad as he claimed! The slaves he sold in 1787 to Baron van Wrede for 4588 thalers.

Perhaps his conduct was unacceptable in a climate of negotiation and reconciliation because the Governor asked the Council of Seventeen in Holland not to permit “this troublesome and annoying person” to return.7 He left for Europe soon after April 1786 with his wife and never returned. His ancestor Von Kamptz (1871) wrote that he returned to Mecklenburg taking with an old negress Clara, her stepson Valentin, and a man called Abraham, all of whom he gave as slaves to Duke Friedrich Franz. Because of his colour Abraham was regarded by the duke as a status symbol and became a vorreiter in his cavalry. Perhaps Anna Catherina did not like her possessions being summarily given away to the duke, because in 1790 she sued for and was granted a divorce in Schwerin. The lusty Anna became engaged for the fourth time, but died of small pox before the wedding leaving all her possessions to her fiancé, Captain von Gerskow.

History plays odd tricks - although the Wernichs farmed at Roodekrantz for close on seventy years, the area never became known as Wernich's Bay, or Ravensteyn’s Bay. Von Kamptz lived there for less than ten years but this was long enough for the area to become known as “de Baai van von Kamptz”. Perhaps it was because he was troublesome and annoying that he was remembered! Let us also remember the names of Clara, Valentin and Abraham. The Wernich farm house later became the holiday home of British Governors, including Lord Charles Somerset, who renovated it extensively. It was demolished in 1920 to make way for a bowling-green.

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