Durban - An old Dakota would fit right in across the road from Moses Mabhida Stadium outside the Natal Mounted Rifles headquarters which once served as an airport terminal.
This is because it was a Dakota that brought the prehistoric coelacanth to Durban in 1952 from the Comoros.
This is according to Amafa heritage practitioner and retired city urban designer Arthur Gammage, who is an avid follower of our Then and Now feature - particularly those with architectural heritage.
He mentioned the idea in a presentation some years ago at a Unesco conference, Filling the Gaps: World Heritage and the 20th Century, in India, dealing with architectural as opposed to natural heritage.
“My presentation mentioned the idea of a vintage plane, but I never took this up with my employer,” he said.
Gammage added that the old airport building had heritage value and was regarded as a good example of the International Style, but in its symmetry and details seemed to fit more easily into the art deco or art moderne movement.
He said it graphically illustrated the huge change in air transport over the past century and, by implication, the decline in the port for sea travel.
The coelacanth became a sensation after a specimen caught from a trawler off East London in 1938 fascinated scientists, who believed no such creatures still existed.
Famed South African ichthyologist JLB Smith received word of a second coelecanth in 1952 after having sent out fliers for Indian Ocean fishermen to look out for them.
“Smith was in Durban Docks aboard the Dunnottar Castle when he first heard about the capture of the second coelacanth (in the Comoros) and he made all the arrangements for his trip to fetch the fish in a military Dakota,” said the fish scientist, Professor Mike Bruton.
Last year, Bruton took Smith’s out-of-print best seller, Old Fourlegs: The Story of the Coelacanth, about searching for and finding the prehistoric-looking fish between 1938 and 1952, and wrote The Annotated Old Fourlegs: The Updated Story of the Coelacanth, working his notes into the margins, using an Alice in Wonderland book-annotation model.
“On his return he gave a famous and very dramatic SABC radio interview at Durban Airport,” said Bruton after the launch of his book last year.
This week, he told The Independent on Saturday Gammage’s idea was “wonderful. It’s an important scientific story we need to keep alive and it continues to inspire”.
He added that this year marked the 80th anniversary of the discovery of the coelacanth off East London and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology in Grahamstown as well as the 50th anniversary of Smith’s death.
He said the actual Dakota which was used was still in flying condition and on display at the SA Air Force Museum at Ysterplaat, Cape Town.
“It’s a wonderful idea but getting a Dakota up here would be a huge logistical mission,” said Bruton.