The commander of the Dutch troops was a man of Scottish descent called Robert Jacob Gordon, a man with an enquiring mind and wide interests. He had been so attracted to the Cape when he first arrived in 1773 on botanical expeditions, that he applied for a posting there. Soon after he returned four years later, he went on a journey of exploration with a British officer which took them to a large river which Gordon named the Orange out of loyalty to his Prince. Wherever he went he made drawings of the birds, animals and plants he encountered. His interests extended to a willingness to try out new ideas, one of which he instructed Lieut. Eng. Thibault to install. This was the most up to date killing machine yet invented - red-hot cannon balls. When fired these deadly missiles were supposed to set a ship aflame. Hot shot cannon balls had been successfully used for the first time during the siege of Gibraltar in 1782 when the British fought off the Spanish Armada. The cannon-balls set the wooden vessels alight, causing the gunpowder on board to explode.

To produce these fearful weapons, ovens for heating cannon balls red hot were provided for all major coastal batteries. The ovens were simple 2m by 2m platforms with a dome- like superstructure, no chimney and a small opening - it looked like a simple baker’s oven or a large dog kennel. Eighteen ovens including the oven in Camps Bay were built“ which together could heat up 450 cannon balls within fourteen minutes.”30 Another of Gordon’s bright ideas was to raise the height of the Mouille batteries with sacks made of cattle hide which had been filled with the wool of Cape Sheep. The local dogs decided that the alteration had been made for their benefit. The strong stench of the skins attracted the dog population of Cape Town and it was said that this was the only time that a battery had been stormed and taken by dogs. Camps Bay accommodation

When the news arrived in 1793 of the renewed war between France and the Netherlands, the batteries were hastily put in order, but this was not of much help as Gordon had only 2800 soldiers. When France occupied Holland in 1795, Britain at the request of the Prince of Orange, sent troops under the command of Major-General James Henry Craig to the Cape to prevent France from capturing her. Many of the Dutch settlers were ambivalent about this because they sided with the pro-French Patriot Party against the Prince and against the Dutch East India Company. The Council of Policy at the Cape also decided to ignore the Prince of Orange’s letter instructing them to hand the Cape over to the British, and the Dutch, when they realized that they would have to fight, stopped supplying the British fleet anchored in Simon’s Bay.

Britain sent an 18 gun frigate, the HMS Echo, to sail around the ( Cape) Peninsula to test out the defences. The Camps Bay battery now had a chance to use its cannon and its men, as well as the soldiers at the batteries in Hout Bay and at the Amsterdam battery in Table Bay ( Cape Town), took their turn in firing at her as she sailed past. Britain knew that Table Bay ( Cape Town) was amply fortified, so they landed instead in False Bay, on 7 August. Together with the superior firepower of their ships, they outgunned the Dutch defenders who were dug in at Muizenberg( A suburb of Cape Town). The Dutch retreated to Wynberg( A suburb of Cape Town), where they were followed a few days later by the British. There was such chaos at Wynberg that many of the disheartened burghers returned home. By 16 September it was all over and a capitulation was signed at Rustenburg in Rondebosch. Four days later the VOC’s fortifications were handed over to Britain, including “De battery aan de Klyne Mouille, De Batteryen in de van Campsbaay.” One of the casualties of the occupation was Colonel Gordon. Three weeks after peace was signed, he killed himself in his garden, upset at the loss of the Cape and the poor showing of his troops. Craig arranged for more cannon to be placed at the Camps Bay battery and allowed Captain A.H. Robertson to stay in Von Kamptz’s old house on condition that the government was not responsible for any repairs to it, unless they decided to take it over themselves. Two years later Lord Macartney came out as Governor with John Barrow as his personal secretary and Andrew Barnard as his Colonial Secretary. Barrow , reported that “At Camps Bay on the western coast of the Peninsula, there are also a few batteries and a military post on the height above it......An almost perpetual surf rolls upon the Sandy Bay of Camps Bay otherwise this might be considered a very vulnerable point.” The only resident at the time was an American, Joshua Penny. Penny was a reluctant member of the crew of HMS Sceptre, having been pressed into service with the Royal Navy. One of the casualties of the occupation was Colonel Gordon. Three weeks after peace was signed, he killed himself in his garden, upset at the loss of the Cape and the poor showing of his troops.  In 1799 he decided that he had had enough and deserted. He found a comfortable lodging in a cave in Fountain Ravine above Camps Bay where he lived for fourteen months on a diet of dassies and liquor fermented from wild honey. Whether the view made up for the Spartan conditions was not recorded. (When WH Crump visited the cave in 1958 he found some things from Penny’s stay.) The view was not sufficient to tempt Lady Anne Barnard who was not as desperate for a roof over her head as was poor Penny. She went out to inspect the area when the homestead was suggested as a possible home for her and Andrew. She reported to Henry Dundas:

“I rode round to Camps Bay, the road to which is finer than any scene I ever saw in my life....that is to say fine from mountains and sea.”

Dassies and wild honey would not have suited her aristocratic palate and she decided that Paradise, in Newlands( A suburb of Cape Town) would be “more snug”. Robertson was not well and wanted to transfer the property to someone else but the Governor did not want the property to pass into another’s hands. Andrew Barnard wrote to the Lord Macartney on 10 March 1800

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