The "Alwyn Vintcent" spent most of her working life at Mossel Bay, one of South Africa's most historical and important sea ports discovered long before what was to become known as Cape Town.

After being blown around the Southern tip of Africa, Bartolomeu Dias, in search of a route to India, became the first seafarer from Europe to round the Cape and sailed into Mossel Bay on 3 February 1488, 165 years before the Dutch settlement in Cape Town.

It was at Mossel Bay that the first Europeans set foot onto South Africa, some four years before the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Dias did not complete the journey to India as he had to turn back to avoid mutiny, and upon rounding the Cape on his way back, he then named the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1500 the Portuguese ships under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral took shelter in the bay after being buffeted by a severe storm. To inform others of their ordeal, Pedro d’Ataide, captain of one of the ships, left a letter in an old seaman’s boot which he hung from a milkwood tree near the spring. Since the bay had become a regular stopover for Portuguese ships to replenish their water supplies, d’Ataide knew that his letter would be found by a Portuguese fleet returning from India. His letter was discovered the following year by João da Nova.

Thus was started a tradition whereby sailors bound for India left letters and messages to relatives which were collected by ships returning to Portugal. (On the 20th of December 1963 the postbox at the Post Office Tree Monument received its own unique postage stamp.)

1601 brought the Dutch captain Paulus Van Caerden named it Mossel Bay, as, when looking to replenish their meat supplies they found instead mussels.

Throughout the years, the area became reknown for its fishing and seafood, and slowly expanded to become an important Port of Call for ships engaged in both the passenger and cargo trade.

However there were no deep water berths available at a wharf, and so the ships had to anchor out in the harbor and tugs towing lighters would travel out to them, pulling up alongside and thence load / discharge both passengers and cargo by basket from the ship!

Such was one of the roles of the "Alwyn Vintcent," to service these ships when they called in to Mossel Bay, transporting passengers and cargo to and from the port.

The most famous of all these vessels were the ships of the "Union Castle" line engaged in the Royal Mail Service from Southhampton to Durban.

Throughout their visits to Mossel Bay, the "Alwyn Vintcent" serviced many of these Union ships, including, the "Carnarvon Castle", "Pendennis Castle", "Stirling Castle", "Winchester Castle", "Athlone Castle" and "Capetown Castle" along with other vessels from different shipping lines.