04/10/2025
Today, 165 years ago, the first ship carrying indentured workers disembarked from the Kidderpore Docks in Calcutta(now Kolkata) on the 4th October 1860, destined to arrive at the Port City of Natal, South Africa. The Belvedere, carrying 342 souls, warrants a deeper gaze in highlighting human commodification, abuse, and violence in the machinations that administered the colonial system of indenture. Records show that 14.2%, twenty-nine, of the 342 passengers listed perished in the Indian Ocean well before landing in South Africa on 26 November 1860.
Further misery followed when the passengers landed in Natal, with ten passengers dying even before being assigned to an employer. The exhausted passengers, having spent 84 days at sea, arrived on 26 November 1860, ten days after the second ship, the Truro, disembarked from Madras (Chennai) on 12 October 1860, having arrived on 16 November 1860.
The BelvedereтАЩs passengers were held at a poorly prepared makeshift quarantine site at the Bluff, far away from the citizens of Durban. The lazaretto tents were swamped with standing water and cramped living conditions that invited death. Sadly, over the next eight years, a further 18 passengers of the original shipтАЩs list died, equating to an incredible 58 deaths from the BelvedereтАЩs original manifest when it first left Calcutta in 1860.
In tribute to those souls who left on board the Belvedere on 4 October 1860, we honour the names of those who passed on before they could arrive at their final destination:
Lubnoyan(382), Mudhoo(387), Goburdhun(395), Gunga(401), Urjoon(407), Chummum(410), Goghurdun(419), Caullichurn(437), Allibacus(441), Hinggoo(442), Bholoo(446), Eddoo(474), Lotoo(511), Bhola(539), Fokeera(564), Dooblokhea(564), Godapoy(585), Dhunee(586) Russnee(600), Mayna(611), Jeetony(617), Soophul(644), Jugroo(646), Modhoo(654), Dhurma(655), Soophul(657), Luchnee(617), Juttoo(675), Boodhny(677).
The following ten persons died on shore within a few days of landing: Bhauttoo(344), Gokhool(345), Goolam Hoosan(351), Jhothe(355), Guzadhur(361) Muggan(426), Ram(432), Beenud(435), Sanjay(535), Luchman(456).
- Written By - Selvan Naidoo ( SA )
1860 Heritage Centre
