The Spanish sailor’s missing eye….

Namib Times, 14 March 1972: “Why would a Spanish seaman in dark glasses scratch in the sand and dust round the custom’s control point at the 13th Rd entrance to the Walvis Bay harbour? Could he be possibly looking for a glass eye?
Yesterday morning a very worriedly looking Spanish seaman wearing dark glasses was spotted by customs officials groping round in the sand and dust near the check-point at the entrance to the harbour.
After a while they became so intrigued that they asked this man what he was looking for. He lifted his dark glasses and true enough he was missing an eye. He claimed he had lost his glass eye at the gate the evening before.
However, the cleaner had been around earlier and swept and tidied the place. So they all moved off to the rubbish bin nearby and on scratching through the contents lo, and behold, came across the Spanish seaman’s missing glass eye”

Syncrolift officially opened in 1974….

The Minister of Economic Affairs Mr. S.L. Muller officially opened the Walvis Bay syncrolift on 22 February 1974.