Henry Charteris Hooper
Henry Charteris Hooper has a special place in South African swimming history, being the first man to (officially) complete the swim from the iconic Robben Island to Cape Town. An escaped VOC convict named Johannes Rijkman van Weij was also reported to have succeeded on 26 January 1690.
After Charteris, it was only in 1921 that another swimmer succeeded, when 15-year-old Peggy Duncan won the Argus newspaper Robben Island Race.
Henry Hooper's first attempt was aborted due to bad weather on 21st August 1909. He was to try again on Monday, 6th September 1909.
Henry Hooper lived at Sedgefield. In 1876, his father, James Hooper, found a gold nugget weighing 17 pennyweights in the Karatra riverbed on his farm Ruigtevlei. Henry inherited part of the farm and built a home on the Groenvlei, which he named Hunter's Home. Groenvlei is about 3,7 km long, and Hooper is said to have swum the length and back before breakfast every day.
Hooper is also said to have swum from Platbank, past the river mouth, to Gerick's Point. The Point can be seen at the top left of the photo below. On the map, there is a pathway from Hunter's Home that leads to the beach at Platbank, from where Hooper would have set out, toward the sandstone cliffs of Gerick's Point. One can only marvel at the fortitude of a swimmer who sets out across the bay, probably without the support boat commonly used in open water swims today. No wonder a Robben Island crossing was not much of a challenge for Henry Hooper!
At the 1926 Argus Race from Robben Island, Henry Hooper can be seen on the right of the image - Peggy Duncan on the left, and Astra Winckler in the middle.
12 April 1952
