Origin of the name “Fick’s Pool” reinvestigated
Wednesday, 2 September 2026
For decades, older Hermanus residents have spoken fondly of Fick's Pool, the tidal pool tucked into a cove off Marine Drive near the Old Harbour. But which "Mr Fick" the pool was actually named after has never been settled — until the Hermanus History Interest Group (HHIG), U3A Overberg's local history branch, took a fresh look this year.
Two candidates have long been in contention. J.J. Fick was headmaster of Hermanus High School from 1921 to 1931, lived on Marine Drive opposite the pool, and lobbied the municipality to improve it. Josias Servaas Fick, a Caledon farmer, was granted land right above the pool as far back as 1889 and made a daily habit of swimming there — enough, family tradition holds, that the spot became known as "Fick se Gat," later softened to "Fick se Poel" and then anglicised to Fick's Pool.
When the Fick family came forward earlier this year with surveyor's plans and old photographs supporting Josias Servaas Fick's claim, HHIG set out to date the pool's sea wall, steps and changing cubicles using its own photographic archive and historical newspaper records. Comparing construction details across several undated photos, and cross-referencing a 1920s aerial photograph with an 1886 surveyor's plan of Josias Fick's property, the group concluded that the pool's infrastructure was already well underway before J.J. Fick ever arrived in Hermanus in 1921 — pointing to Josias Servaas Fick as the pool's namesake.
The investigation also traces the pool's own naming history: renamed the more genteel "Mermaid's Pool" by the municipality in 1949, then formally restored to "Fick's Pool" in 1973. It's one of several Hermanus landmarks — among them Hoy's Koppie and the Old Harbour — whose names were simply adopted by common usage long before any official ever signed off on them.
Read the full investigation, with surveyor's plans and archival photographs, at https://u3aoverberg.co.za/article.php?slug=origin-of-the-name-ficks-pool-reinvestigated
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