Samson Gabriel Dyer aka Sampson Dyers (9 September 1773 – 1843) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

man noted for his association with Dyer Island off the Cape Agulhas coast of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Biography

He was born in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. As a young man Dyer moved to

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

where he found work as a boatsteerer on a

whaleboat A whaleboat is a type of open boat that was used for catching whales, or a boat of similar design that retained the name when used for a different purpose. Some whaleboats were used from whaling ships. Other whaleboats would operate from the sh ...

. In 1806 he boarded the vessel "President" bound for

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. Arrived in Cape Town, he was employed by the firm ''Cloete, Reitz and Anderson'' as a harpooner for the whaling industry in

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcat ...

. Later he was sent to an unnamed island to prepare sealskins for the company. Here he also gathered

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

which he sold as fertiliser to farmers in the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

area. The greater part of the

Cape fur seal The brown fur seal (''Arctocephalus pusillus''), also known as the Cape fur seal, South African fur seal and Australian fur seal, is a species of fur seal. Description The brown fur seal is the largest and most robust member of the fur seals. ...

colony was to be found on neighbouring Geyser Rock. With the guano-boom of the 19th century, guano was removed from Dyer Island regularly until the 1980s.

African penguin The African penguin (''Spheniscus demersus''), also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. Like all extant penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiff ...

s had previously made nesting holes in the

, but following removal of the guano, they took to nesting on open ground, making their nests easily accessible to predators such as the kelp gull. The late 19th-century craze for penguin eggs as a delicacy led to unsustainable exploitation until the 1960s. Records show that in 1902 alone 16,400 penguin eggs were collected on Dyer Island.

Great white pelican The great white pelican (''Pelecanus onocrotalus'') also known as the eastern white pelican, rosy pelican or white pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa, in swamps and shallow lakes. ...

s formerly bred on the island until keepers destroyed the breeding grounds through excessive egg harvesting. Currently Dyer Island is a nature reserve for marine birds and penguin numbers are standing at about 7000. Geyser Rock now supports a colony of some 40,000

fur seals Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family '' Otariidae''. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears (pinnae), relatively lon ...

, and consequently the channel between the two islands is a rich hunting ground for

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...

s and is known as ''Shark Alley''. Dyer applied for British citizenship six years later, and stated to the governor, Sir

John Cradock John Cradock (alias Craddock) (c. 1708 - 10 December 1778) was an English churchman, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin from 1772. Background and education Born at Donington, Shropshire, England about 1708, he was the eldest son of the Reve ...

, that he was permanently employed culling seals and had prepared skins of some 24,000 seals over four seasons. In 1813 he married Margaretha Engel, who came from Elim, and was his junior by 18 years. They had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Dyer was baptized in Caledon at the age of 70. The date and place of his death are not known.

Business

Dyer showed great business acumen, and was considered a very rich and respected man in the Overberg. Alexander Johnstone Jardine (1790–1845), the Cape Town librarian, interviewed Dyer during 1824 and wrote: "Samson Dyer is a most extraordinary man of uncommon industry, honesty and sobriety." The previously unnamed island has since been known as Dyer Island or Dyers Island, and in the 1830s was noted for its sealskins, seal oil, penguin eggs and guano. Dyer invested his money in the purchase of a number of farms, such as ''Platterug'' and ''Goedvertrouw'', where he kept sheep. He was also the owner of land in Hawston and had shares in the farm ''Zandfontein''.

References

External links

Hawston, Western Cape
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyer, Samson 1773 births 1843 deaths American emigrants to the Cape Colony American people in whaling People from Nantucket, Massachusetts People from Newport, Rhode Island People of colonial Rhode Island

Biography

Business

References

Further reading

External links