Former name of Luderitz Bay. Portuguese for 'bay of tacks', this name was given in 1488 by the Portuguese mariner Bartholomeu Dias because contrary winds caused many tracks in the sand there!
The Eastern most Bay was named Angra Pequena, although in some maps it appeared as Angra de São Christóvão. In 1883 the Bay area was made into a trading station by German trader Adolf Lüderitz. He concluded treaties with the neighbouring chiefs, who ceded large tracts of country to the newcomers. Under the belief that Britain was about to claim the area as a protectorate, Lüderitz transferred his rights over the bay on 24 April 1884 to the German Imperial Government, and on the following 7 August Chancellor Otto von Bismarck proclaimed a German protectorate over the station and the surrounding area.
Renamed Lüderitzbucht, meaning 'bay of little islands', by the Germans, the location then became a naval base for German South-West Africa, modern day Namibia.
The two islands off Agate Beach, rich in guano deposits, were annexed by Great Britain in 1867 and added to Cape Colony in 1874 as part of the offshore territory known as 'Penguin Islands'.
