Hout Bay’s legendary “Captain Birdseye” – always smartly dressed in his full naval skipper’s outfit – has sadly stood his last watch, having passed away just before Christmas.
Bradley Bowden, 60, was hospitalised after suffering a heart condition and later died. He was found about a week ago, ill on defence ship SAS Oosterland where it had been berthed on the harbour wall.
Mystery surrounded whether Captain Bradley actually ever was a naval officer, but he was always impeccably dressed as one as he made his rounds of the quayside.
His brother Gavin, who was quick to address the mystery, said: “He worked on the deep water trawlers out of Cape Town starting off as a deck hand then rising to First Mate in the latter part of the 80s and 1990s.”
With his Captain’s hat always set perfectly on his head, he was a popular figure for tourists who loved to be photographed with him on his decommissioned ship.
The SAS Oosterland was built in the UK in 1959 for the South African navy and was sold to the Evans family, who run seal boat trips in Hout Bay in 1990, for a rebuild.
But it never happened and with the vessel having been broken into a number of times, the Evans family accepted Bradley’s offer to live aboard and become her watchman.
He and his brother Gavin, 68, were born in Kimberley and both did military National Service. Bradley was also a very talented musician. His concert piano mother taught him to play the keys, while he taught himself to play the trumpet, organ, keyboards and guitar.
“He was a lovely man but a bit of a black sheep in a nice way and would disappear for long periods of time then just turn up,“ Gavin said.
Gavin was a member of Hout Bay Yacht Club and Bradley actually made the lanyard that rings the ships bell at the bar and holds open the club serving hatch.
“He would be at the door with nothing but the clothes on his back – but always with his guitar – and sometimes a wife or a lady or kids in tow with him,” Gavin said.
“Then he would be gone again until he just turned up out of the blue without warning.”
Gavin moved from South Africa to New Zealand in 1994, with his parents following a year later. They lost touch with Bradley but heard that he had been “somewhere in central Africa” working as a game ranger.
“That did not last long and he went back to sea on the trawlers then vanished again and we never heard a word from him for some 16 years until 2020,“ Gavin said.
Contact was limited, until they received a call to say Bradley had passed.
“He was a good man, but a free spirit who lived his life fully on his terms” Gavin said.
Bradley was living his partner Denise on the former naval defence ship SAS Oosterland which was moored in the harbour before falling ill a week ago.
Bradley was called “Captain Birdseye” after the captain in the fish fingers adverts that used to run in the UK and would answer to it with a salute.
