Phoenix breakwaters Phoenix breakwaters The Phoenix breakwaters were a set of reinforced concrete caissons built as part of the artificial Mulberry harbours that were assembled as part of the follow-up to the Normandy landings during World War II. They were constructed by civil engineering contractors around the coast of Britain. They were collected at Dungeness and Selsey, and then towed by tugboats across the English Channel and sunk to form the Mulberry harbour breakwaters replacing the initial "Gooseberry" block ships. Further caisson were added in the autumn of 1944 to re-enforce the existing structure to cope with the harbour continuing in use
South African Railways and Harbours Administration workers by Afrikaners. Most of the black workers were migrants, housed in company labour compounds. In 1936 starting pay for single black workers was 3/6d a day and for coloured workers 4/-d a day. After 11 years pay rose to 4/6d for black and 5/- for coloured workers. Married workers got between 4d and 6d more per day. 28,000 of the 45,000 employed were casual day labourers. Dock workers were often required to "stand by" waiting for a ship to arrive. The South African Railways and Harbours Union was formed after a meeting of the staff in Cape Town on