CONNECTIONS to the island of St Helena

Groot Constantia Vines

Was there, in the past, a connection between the wine farming area called Constantia, the once large private Maynard estate,Wynberg (a suburb of Cape Town), the island of St Helena and Napoleon Bonaparte? 

The Portuguese explorer Joao de Nova discovered the island on 21 May 1502 and named it after Saint Helena mother of the Emperor Constantine.  It became a stopover, a refreshment  station for many ships.  Thomas Cavendish an English sailor/buccaneer and third circumnavigator of the globe arrived there in 1588.  In 1659 the English East India Company took possession of the island. Opposing Dutch forces invaded in 1673 but soon surrendered.  The EEIC held the island until 1834 when it was brought under the British Government.

Napoleon

In 1815 Napoleon 1 was defeated at Waterloo.  His freedom was over and he went into exile on the island of St Helena where he remained until his death in 1821.  During his  years on the island the local economy boomed.  This was due to the several regiments of soldiers who had been sent to St Helena to see that he did not try to escape and that he was properly cared for. It is at this stage that one can begin to answer the question in the paragraph above. Commerce had entered the picture.

Groot Constantia Vines

 St Helena probably needed to import food, wine and other necessities of daily life.  Items required would have come from Britain but  probably also from the British governed Cape Colony.  The confined Napoleon is said to have enjoyed Constantia wines. Today Constantia still has farms producing quality products.

 Another link to Napoleon and the Maynare estate is as follows. In 1840 Napoleon’s remains were taken from the island and re-interred in Paris.  In 1841 the iron gates that had closed off the emperor’s tomb were bought by J M Maynard, shipped to Cape  Town and placed at the entrance to his estate at Wynberg.  In1949 the gates were returned to the island of St Helen.  by Maynard’s descendants Mr and Mrs Bernard.  

Longwood House

A while back I was told by the then French Consul that the gates still exist and are at Longwood House where Napoleon lived for the last six years of his life. The property is owned and maintained by the French government

The response to the question then is that there once were links, admittedly tenuous but ones that have, over the years, grown firmer and commercially stronger.  Tourism between South Africa and St Helena is constant. A mail ship docks regularly in Cape Town harbour, sometimes with individuals seeking work here, taking back visitors and what ever is required for the well being of the island.  The links written about may have been small but they help to fill in aspects of St Helena’s history.

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