Knysna has shipwrecks, sailors, timber merchants and stories stretching back centuries. But tucked away beside the lagoon is perhaps one of its strangest maritime memorials: the resting place of an English bulldog called Bondi.

It is one of those little pieces of history that is easy to walk past without ever knowing the story behind it.

Bondi belonged to the crew of the Royal Navy ship HMS Verbena, a Flower-class minesweeping sloop that had served during the First World War and was later assigned to the Africa Station, operating from Simon’s Town. During a visit to Lourenço Marques, today Maputo, in 1928, the people of the city presented the dog to the ship’s crew.

Bondi was more than an unofficial pet. His name was entered on the ship’s list as its mascot, which entitled him to an Admiralty allowance for his food. On paper, at least, he had his place in the ship’s company.

HMS Verbena became a regular visitor to Knysna. On Friday, 30 January 1931, during the ship’s third visit, members of the crew went ashore to prepare the Knysna Town Hall for a variety concert they were presenting that evening.

The sailors left the wharf on Thesen Island and headed uphill towards the Town Hall. Bondi followed.

It was an exceptionally hot summer afternoon and, before they reached their destination, the bulldog collapsed and died of sunstroke.

The entry in HMS Verbena’s log was brutally simple: “1600 hours – Bondi died ashore.”

For Bondi, however, that was not quite the end of the story.

A grave sailors remembered

The crew buried their mascot beside the wharf, just north of the old government warehouse on Thesen Island, close to where the Garden Route National Park offices stand today.

A grassy mound and wooden marker were placed over the grave, with a brass plate carrying the simple inscription, “Bondi of H.M.S. Verbena.”

Then something rather wonderful happened.

Royal Navy ships continued visiting Knysna, and their sailors began looking after Bondi’s grave. Crews would go ashore, cut the grass and polish the brass plate.

Sailors from HMS Delphinium, Rochester, Milford, Weston, Bridgewater, Penzance, Auckland and Londonderry were among those recorded as tending the little memorial.

Think about that for a moment.

Bondi had belonged to one ship, yet sailors from other vessels, many of whom would never have known him, continued caring for his grave.

It became a small naval tradition.

The visits stopped with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, when the wharf became a restricted area. Knysna itself had become part of the war effort, with Thesen’s boatyard building ten Fairmile motor launches.

After the war, the tradition returned. HMS Nereide visited Knysna in 1948 and her crew once again tended Bondi’s grave. Other naval visits followed, but Knysna harbour eventually closed to shipping in 1954, and the original grave marker was subsequently lost.

Bondi remembered

Fortunately, Knysna did not forget him.

With the involvement of the Knysna Historical Society, a memorial was reinstated near the original burial area. It was later repositioned during wharf development and now stands close to the Garden Route National Park offices at Thesen’s Jetty.

The naval tradition was also revived. On 13 July 2001, sailors from the South African Navy minehunters SAS Umhloti and SAS Umzimkulu polished Bondi’s brass plaque. Naval crews and local sea cadets have maintained the custom on later occasions.

Bondi has another memorial too

At the Knysna Waterfront, beneath a staircase beside the pedestrian bridge over the canal, stands a life-size sculpture of the bulldog, created and donated by local artist Karel du Toit. Beside it is a collection box for the Knysna Animal Welfare Society. More than nine decades after his death, Bondi’s story is still helping other animals.

It is a wonderfully Knysna sort of story. A Royal Navy ship sailed into the lagoon. A bulldog followed his friends into town on a hot summer afternoon and never made it back. Yet generations of sailors remembered him.

And today, among the restaurants, yachts, houses and holidaymakers of modern Knysna, Bondi is still there.

You just need to know where to look.

Sources and acknowledgements

Special thanks to Philip Caveney of the Knysna Historical Society for his generous assistance and for supplying historical information, photographs and archival material relating to Bondi.

Historical photographs and newspaper clippings: Knysna Museum Archives, supplied by Philip Caveney.

Additional historical reference: Margaret Parkes and V. M. Williams, Knysna the Forgotten Port: The Maritime Story.

Contemporary photographs: Johann van Tonder, Trailrider Media, Ultimate Journey.