A Short History of Lake St. Lucia

• Survivors of the Portuguese vessel the 'St. Benedict' named the area 'Rio de la Medaos do Oura' (River of the dhows of Gold'.
• On the day of the Feast of Saint Lucy (13th December) 1575, Manual Peresterello renamed the area 'St. Lucia'.
• The areas immediately surrounding the lake were declared a game reserve in 1895 - the oldest in Africa.
• In 1971, the coastal areas and the lake were listed in the Convention of Wetlands of International Importance.
• In December 1999 The Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site - South Africa's first.

Lake St. Lucia was also involved in World War II: (from Tourism KZN)

During World War II, the British Air Ministry established a radar observation post on Mt Tabor. This assisted the anti-submarine Catalina flying boats stationed at Lake St Lucia.

Up to the end of 1942, very limited air cover could be given to shipping around the South African coast. The British Air Ministry sent 262 Squadron to Natal to do anti-submarine patrols and, with their capable Catalina dflying boats, escort shipping and combat the U-boat menace.

On 1 December 1942 F/Lt SJ Woods was sent to St Lucia to establish a new advance base on the Eastern Shores of the lake. On 28 December 1942, 50km off St Lucia, a German submarine, U-177, attacked and sunk the Nova Scotia, an auxiliary cruiser Carrying over 1 000 Italian civilian internees.

Continuous patrols by the Catalinas acted as a deterrent and occasionally bore fruit. On one such patrol in mid 1943, Catalina “J” sighted U-198 under Kapitan zur de See Hartman who exchanged fire with the Catalina, and managed to damage the aircraft’s port engine with machine-gun fire. Hartman was forced to dive, however, when six 250lb depth charges landed near his ship.

On another sortie U-197 Kapitan lieutenant Bartels was located 1 000km off the coast by the crew of Catalina “C: who attacked the submarine and forced the U-boar to dive. It was so badly damaged by the Catalina’s bombs that it had to surface. Another attack by the Catalina forced the submarine to dive again, this time leaving oil patches on the surface. U-197 was later reported missing, suggesting that it had been sunk.

On other occasions Catalinas patrolling the Zululand coast spotted survivors on rafts or life-boars from ships sunk by German U-boats, and by reporting the locality, helped many survivors to reach safety.

On 25 June 1943, Catalina “H” crashed shortly after take-off, killing eight of the nine crew: The wreck of this aircraft can still be seen near the eastern shore of the lake, due west of Mt Tabor, when lake levels are low.

In November 1943, man of the South African Air Force replaced RAF personnel.

In July 1944, U[boats were reported in the area once again, and the Cataline”C” from St Lucia sighted U-859 under Korvettenkapitan Jebson. The submarine commander opened fire. In the ensuing action, one German seaman was killed and three were injured when depth charges from the Catalina exploded near the U-boat. Due to the aircraft’s attack, the submarine was forced to div, leaving an oil slick behind.

Another U-boat fell prey to a Ventura aircraft the nest day, and that ended the aircraft attacks on U-boats from South African waters during the war.

The air-force base at St Lucia was finally decommissioned on 2 February 1945, and the buildings were handed over to Durban Fortress Command. Mt Tabor base camp which is now used for the Mziki Trail is the only building that still remains intact.