The anchor is perhaps the most characteristic feature in coats of arms associated with the Cape Colony – not only in municipalities and institutions within its boundaries, but even in some far beyond its borders. It is perhaps of greater importance than the arms of Van Riebeeck. The anchor’s symbolism for the Cape comes from the Renaissance and post-Renaissance fondness for the three Christian virtues, as listed by Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth (1 Cor 13:13): Faith, Hope and Love (or Charity). The virtues were symbolised by three virgins, each holding a symbol of her appropriate virtue. Hope was shown holding an anchor, and was considered the appropriate symbol for the Cape of Good Hope. It was first used armorially in the seal of the Cape Town congregation of the Nederduitsche Gereformeerde Kerk, whose building is now called the Groote Kerk.

After the Groote Kerk seal, the anchor was first used armorially as a supporter in the arms Commissioner-General Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist granted to Cape Town and the five drostdijen of the colony in 1804.

No new developments emerged for more than half a century until the anchor was first used (on its own) in the coat of arms Charles Davidson Bell, Surveyor-General of the Cape Colony, devised in 1859 for the South African College (now the South African College Schools and the University of Cape Town). (I do not yet have an illustration of his drawing.) Bell also designed the Cape triangular stamp, which appears to have inspired attorney C A Fairbridge, who in 1875 designed a coat of arms for the Cape Colony which included a crest of a virgin holding an anchor, resting against a rock. The Cape Province continued to use this crest until 1994, but it was redrawn in 1950.

The Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek adopted an anchor in its arms (its colour specified as being gold), which were so loosely defined in the legislation by which they were adopted that the anchor could be almost anywhere in the design. However, in the long run the anchor found its place in a inescutcheon argent (which meant that it had to change colour to black), and had a red cable. When the Transvaal Province adopted the arms of the ZAR in the 1950s, this remained.

The Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown adopted arms incorporating an anchor, and it is very likely that it was this anchor that was included in the arms of the Collegiate Church (now Cathedral) of St Mary the Virgin, in Port Elizabeth, originally granted by the Bishop of Grahamstown in 1894.

Cape Town was granted arms in 1899 in which the anchor supporter became a charge, and the red shield which the anchor had supported in the 1804 arms became an inescutcheon. In fact, the heralds went to town, so to speak, on anchors in these arms, since the dexter supporter is the lady Hope holding her anchor, and a third anchor appears in the crest. Plumstead High School uses the city crest for its school badge. Wynberg’s coat of arms incorporated an anchor in its second quarter. And East London’s first coat of arms, adopted in roughly the same period, imitated the arms of Cape Town and the drostdijen in using an anchor as a supporter.

The anchor’s next appearance was in the first quarter of arms of the Union of South Africa, where a silver virgin leaning against a silver rock held a silver anchor. The Cape Province was granted arms identical to this quarter in 1911, but did not use them. The anchor in the arms of the Western Cape Province, adopted in 1998, drops the lady Hope but retains her anchor; however, the colours are reversed, so the anchor is red on silver.

In imitation of the anchor in the arms of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek, the Transvaal University College adopted an anchor for its crest, and the same anchor crest (in slightly different colours) is still found in the arms of the University of Pretoria.

During the 20th century several municipalities obtained grants of arms from the College of Arms in London. The heralds did not recognise the anchors in the drostdij arms as being supporters, and incorporated them in to the arms of various municipalities in different ways. In 1952 Stellenbosch gained an anchor in its crest, and East London, in its 1959 grant, received a pair of anchors crossed diagonally for a crest.

When Port Elizabeth in 1958 received a formal grant of the arms it had been using since 1861, the heralds insisted that, over and above the differences the city fathers had already made to the arms of Sir Rufane Donkin, it should add, as a difference, two anchors in the chief. These anchors (and only the anchors, in altered colours) were taken up in the arms which the Algoa Regional Services Council adopted in the late 1980s. In the 1960s, however, the University of Port Elizabeth decided to abandon the stock anchors traditional in the Cape and adopt a more modern type of anchor, the stockless anchor. However, the Diocese of Port Elizabeth chose in its arms, registered in 1978, to use a stock anchor, since in its case the anchor was taken from the arms of the Diocese of Grahamstown. Another stock anchor appeared in the crest of the Ibhayi City Council.