Empire Cricket Booklet

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DEAN ALLEN

Fate, however, brought him to the Cape when the Rockhampton was damaged during a storm in Simon's Bay on 1 May 1877 and had to undergo repair work at the British naval port of Simonstown. 9 Frustrated by the delay, Logan seized the opportunity of securing an official discharge from the ship's master, Stephen Owen, on 23 May 1877, and headed to the bustling port of Cape Town, a trade and commercial centre that braced itself for rapid transformation with the discovery of minerals in the north.10 Swart is right in suggesting that it was Logan's good fortune that his arrival coincided with 'new possibilities and needs created when diamonds were discovered at Kimberley'.11 One urgent need was an improved rail and transportation system throughout the interior.

happy yet 'resourceful' childhood, recounting how the Logan family income was supplemented by poaching -something to which the young Logan appeared more than adept. A local man would recall years later 'that Mr. Logan apparently got into trouble with the police and was due to appear in court on charges of poaching. He disappeared before court proceedings and went to South Africa.' 4 This was perhaps an apocryphal story, but was an early indication of the controversial nature of a man whose destiny lay elsewhere. Despite the hardships Logan was keen to progress and showed early promise at Reston House School, where his headmaster recognised the potential of his youthful charge: 'He is an excellent penman and a good arithmetician, besides being extremely smart and clever. I should rejoice to hear of him obtaining a good situation, and I have no doubt that he would discharge his duties to the satisfaction of his employers.' 5 Such confidence was vindicated when, after a spell at sea as a cabin boy, Logan returned to Reston to join his father as clerk of the Scottish Railways at the town ' s station. His aptitude for such work was noted by the management of the North British Railway Company and he was soon marked for promotion. However, Logan's ambitions had far outgrown the confines of the rigid class structure of Victorian Britain. 6 The British empire was expanding and the colonies were offering the promise of a new beginning. In South Africa, as one analyst suggested, 'money was the criterion ... We didn't have any class other than a money class. There was no aristocracy.' 7 Logan, like thousands of others, decided that opportunity and, more importantly, status, were easier obtained in British enclaves overseas. In January 1877, Logan surprised his employers and parents by resigning his position and travelling to London with the intention of securing a passage to Australia. On the 23rd of that month, he signed as an apprentice of W. M. Anderson and Company's Rockhampton, a sailing ship which regularly made the trip to the Antipodes. 8 On 12 February 1877, with a number of emigrants and general cargo aboard, the ship left the Port of London for Rockhampton in the British colony of Queensland, with nineteen-year old Logan working the voyage.

James Logan

The timing of Logan's arrival in South Africa could not have been better. When Logan joined the Cape Province Railway Service in 1877, working as a porter at Cape Town's new railway station for little over 5/- per day, the Cape's railway system was still very much in the formative stage of development. Until 1873, the railways which linked Cape Town with Wellington and the interior were in the hands of the private Cape