Simon's Town

This guide to Simon's Town, near Cape Town, centers on Christoffel Brand, an 18th-century company clerk who ran the official trading post here while quietly rowing out to sell to arriving ships before they could dock. It follows the private venture he and five partners built to sidestep the Dutch East India Company's own monopoly, and the string of famous visitors his hospitality drew in, including a young James Cook and a fever-stricken Horatio Nelson. Listen for the moment William Bligh turns up, years before his own crew turned on him.