Saldanha Bay, one of the best natural harbours in the world, certainly the deepest and safest in South Africa, acquired its name at second hand.  In May 1503 Antonio de Saldanha, commodore of the Portuguese navy, anchored in what is now Table Bay, which was named Aguada de Saldanha (the watering place of Saldanha).  Nearly 100 years later the Dutch gave Table Bay its current name and transferred the name Saldanha 110km to the northwest.

Despite the swashbuckling past of the bay the origins of the town of Saldanha were modest and unspectacular.  Until early this century the population comprised mostly fishermen struggling to make a living by making bokkems (dried herrings) and selling these to farmers as rations for their labourers.  The abundance of fish in the bay, with its prodigious supply of plankton, gradually began to attract the attention fo fish canners and by the start of the Second World War a few canning plants were in operation. 

The main obstacle to the development of the town, the lack of fresh water, was eliminated during the war when the growing strategic importance of the bay prompted the authorities to build a pipeline to supply water from the Berg River.  To relieve the pressure on Table Bay and Simonstown, a new naval base was built at Saldanha in 1944.  Today SAS Saldanha with its training gymnasium is one of the more important facilities of the South African Navy.  In 1958 the Military Academy of the SANDF was moved to Saldanha Bay, where students now read for the B Mil degree.

Meanwhile the availability of fresh water has boosted the economic development of the town and bay.  Today fishing is big business.  There are several plants canning fish, manufacturing fish-meal or processing lobster, mullet and tunny for export.  In the 1970s Saldanha acquired new strategic significance when it was developed into an iron ore export harbour.

* Aquaculture or sea farming, is practised on a large scale in the bay.  The enterprise was started in 1962 by one of the civil engineers involved in the construction of the harbour who decided to lease the large tidal basin for a sea farm.  Constantly fed by the cold Benguela current, the basin turned out to be ideal for farming with mussels, clams and oysters, which feed by filtering plankton from the water.  Four more sea farms have since started production.  Main products are the Mediterranean blue mussel, foreign oysters (Japan, Chile, Canada and the US) and indigenous clams.  The floats of the sea farms in the bay are a fascinating sight.

* On the farm Kliprug (stone ridge) there is the grave of Simeon Cummings, third engineer of the Alabama, the Confederate raider which put into Saldanha Bay in July 1863 during the American Civil War.  The crew were lavishly entertained by the locals and many hunting trips were arranged.  It was on one of these trips that Cummings accidentally shot himself in the heart.  To this day his grave is tended by the American government.

* There is also the doctor's cave in which, according to tradition, a doctor treated smallpox sufferers.  When a smallpox epidemic struck the Cape in 1871 patients were shipped to a quarantine camp at Saldanha.

* There are various hiking trails through the 1800ha military area.  In spring this area is ablaze with colour.

* Saldanha stages an annual marine harvest festival in September.

Accommodation in and around Saldanha