Characters of Port St Johns - Napoleon the Fisherman

One of the best-known characters of Port St Johns, Napoleon (generally known as 'Nap'), was a fisherman and ghillie.  The stories about him reflect his salty sense of humour.

 “Napoleon was a Coloured fisherman who lived to the ripe old age of about 90.”
(Louis Smit)

“Has anyone told you of the Coloured man who many years ago used to sell bait on the old Port St Johns jetty?  I am told that a ship had come into the harbour and the jetty was packed with people.  The bait man was shouting in English and Afrikaans ‘Bait ... aas ... bait ... aas ... bait ... aas!’ when a lady near him said ‘Siss, your bait stinks’.

The bait man replied ‘Jus like your aas ... bait ... aas ... bait!’” (Shirley Eayrs Smith)

“I think that Nap’s surname was Lawrence.”  (Howard Daniel)

Napoleon smells fish:
“One day Napoleon was walking past the veranda of the Needles Hotel with his fishing rods over his shoulder when a visitor from the Transvaal, who was sitting on the veranda, asked him 'Why are you going fishing today?' and Nap replied 'I can jus' smell them, there's fish out there today.'  (Howard Daniel)

Nap’s Cousin is drowned at the River Mouth near Paul’s Cove:

“Evan Hope-Bailey and Peter Sobey had bought a skiboat and were going to do skiboating on a commercial basis in Port St Johns.  One day they were going out to sea very close to Paul’s Cove, below the Lighthouse, because that was where the channel was at the time.  They had one of Nap’s cousins on board, probably as the ghillie, when the boat was overturned and unfortunately Nap’s cousin was drowned.  This was in about 1953 or 1954.”  (Howard Daniel)

Napoleon is Stranded:

Napoleon was a ghillie in the town and, on this occasion, was commissioned by a visitor who had come down from Jo’burg.  The visitor was told that Napoleon was the best ghillie in the town, so he employed Napoleon for a couple of days and was very happy with his help while fishing.  At the end of his employment, he gave Nap a cheque in payment.  It was made out to Napoleon.  Before the visitor left the town, he told Nap that he was to take the cheque to the bank to get the money.  Well, there was only one bank in the town, the Standard Bank, so Nap went off to the Standard Bank to cash his cheque.

If you can visualise the bank, there isn’t much space from the front door to the teller’s counter, and in those days there was a division down the bank so that the whites went to the left-hand side and the non-whites to the right.  The bank manager’s name was Mike Richards, a short, bald-headed man.  Mike had worked for the Standard Bank elsewhere, but wanted to retire in Port St Johns, so managed to arrange it that he would spend his last years before retirement working in the bank in Port St Johns.
 

            On the day that Nap decided to go to the bank to cash his cheque, it was a hot Saturday morning during the holiday season.  Now Nap enjoyed having drinks at the 'Needles Hotel' on Saturday afternoons.  The bank was full and Nap arrived, hot and thirsty, eager to get his money and go off to the 'Needles'.  The non-white queue stretched out of the door.  On duty inside the bank was a new young teller who had recently arrived in the town to work in the bank. 

            The young teller was working very slowly and carefully.  Nap stood patiently in line, waiting for his turn, but was becoming steadily more and more thirsty as the time passed.  When he finally reached the counter, he handed over the cheque.  The teller looked at the cheque and said that it was a crossed cheque and that Nap would have to deposit the cheque into his bank account.  Nap said that he didn’t have a bank account and just wanted the money.  The teller insisted that he had to deposit the cheque to get the money.  This went on for a while, with Nap becoming hotter and hotter under the collar, and the young teller firmly sticking to his story that the cheque had to be deposited.  The lines were growing on both sides of the bank as more and more customers were waiting to be helped.  The conversation became louder and louder, and the customers on both sides of the partition started pushing and shoving.  Nap refused to back down:  he wanted his money, and he wanted it right away!

            The bank manager’s office was off to the left hand side of the bank, and Mike Richards must have heard things becoming more and more heated inside the bank, so he opened his door and walked out into the foyer.  Nap saw Mike and called over to him 'I jus' want my money and this man won’t give it to me!'  Mike, of course, knew Nap, so called him into his office.  Mike knew that the visitor had a safe account, so he sorted it all out by opening an account for Nap, cashed the cheque and Nap walked out of the manger's office with the cash in his hands.

            By now, a crowd had gathered in the bank, all waiting to see how this would end.  As he walked out of Mike’s office, Nap called out to the crowd while waving the money in his hands ’The problem wit' ‘jis town, we only has one bank, so now I’s stranded wit' 'da Standard!” (Howard Daniel)