Description

Lourenço Marques (since 1976 known as Maputo) was originally founded by the Portuguese as a fort in 1781, with a town forming around it from 1850.  Located upon a stellar natural harbour, by Delgoa Bay, it was connected by railway to Pretoria from 1894.  Lourenço Marques was made the capital of Portuguese Mozambique in 1898.

The Portuguese constructed an urban plan of a well-ordered grid of streets and squares, rising upon a bluff over the port.  In 1904, a special commission enacted ambitious plans to expand and modernize the port, digging the Canal de Polana, a deep channel leading out of the port into the centre of Delgoa Bay, to handle the largest possible ships, as well as creating modern harbour facilities.

By the 1930s, Lourenço Marques was one of the most modern and sophisticated cities an all Africa, boasting grand Art Deco buildings, modern infrastructure and services, as well as thriving business and cultural sectors.  However, prosperity was very unevenly allocated, as the Portuguese enforced an Apartheid-like system, that saw the city’s Black majority lived as second-class citizens, in relative poverty, causing much discontent.

The Present Chart in Focus

The present chart was issued by the British Admiralty, predicated upon the best Portuguese surveys.  It depicts the port of Lourenço Marques in the wake of World War II when it was the maritime gateway to the riches the Transvaal, as one of the most vibrant and modern ports in the Indian Ocean Basin.

The city of Lourenço Marques, with its neatly ordered steers, is detailed in the centre of the chart, located on a highland above where the Rio Espirito Santo joins Delgoa Bay.  The commercial docklands are shown fronting the downtown, connected to the railway which runs eastwards into the Transvaal, and which is further detailed in the inset, ‘Lourenço Marques Harbour’ (lower left corner).  The Canal da Polana is shown, providing a deep-water passage between the river and the centre of the bay.  The chart provides a much better view of the city of Lourenço Marques that most nautical works, outlining many key buildings and sites.

References: OCLC: 752059928.