To this day I still do not know who or how the crate was delivered but it arrived whole, safe and sound. I duly handed over the money and about two days later, the crate was safely dropped off at my house in Westville. Joe asked whether the crate was part of my aunt’s luggage which we assumed it was and then he asked for my address and whether I had Rand 50 on me to “defray expenses” and to leave it to him. Furthermore I needed the crate transported to Westville which was some 25 kms away.
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When Joe came walking up to our small group, I greeted him with “Joe! you are exactly the man I want to see!” He asked why and I explained that in the hold of the ship was a heavy crate and I had no idea how to get it out, what procedure was required, paperwork involved, who to speak to and so on. Whether it was a portent of what was to come in my later “lucky” associations with Rockwell machines I do not know, but Joe de Gabriele was exactly the person I needed to meet that day as I stood at the Ocean Terminal meeting my aunt. Joe was a fellow Maltese and his duties with Thomas Cook were to meet people arriving by sea and to make arrangements for their transportation to hotels and to see to their luggage, passport control, etc. Amongst them was one, Joe de Gabriele who worked for Thomas Cook, the shipping agents. Whilst resident in Durban, my father and I, had made acquaintances with quite a few Maltese families who had emigrated from Egypt to South Africa. My aunt had been allocated a certain amount of hold space in the ship and “my box” was allowed to be transported as luggage in the hold. Now unbeknown to me and I suppose as a surprise package from my father, my aunt informed me that in the hold of the ship was a “big heavy box” and that I should see as to how I could get it home as it was from my father. Having never seen her, there was the usual air of unknowing but all this was dispelled as the family resemblance was immediate. Arrangements were made that I meet her when the ship arrived in Durban harbour. My aunt decided to travel to South Africa by ship. Some seven years later, in 1972, one of my father’s younger sisters decided that she would like to see her eldest sister still alive and living in Schweizer Reneke whom she had not seen for close on 25 years and also to see her other nephews and nieces, including myself, whom she had last seen as babies. In the hold of the ship, packed away in a crate, was his table saw and jointer combination. Southern Cross in Durban en route to Sydney, Australia. My father’s business venture in Schweizer Reneke did not last long at all and in 1965 he decided to emigrate on his own to Australia to join the rest of his brothers and sisters who had emigrated there from Egypt in the early 1950s. (Rand is the South African currency denomination, internationally demarcated ZAR). The combination cost in the region of Rand 440 at the time. The jointer, a Model 37-220 6 inch was made by Rockwell in Guelph, Canada. The saw, made in Pittsburgh, USA, came complete with motor, fence and mitre gauge but without the saw guard attachment which was an optional extra. To this end, in 1964, he purchased a Rockwell Delta Model 1164, 10 inch Tilting Table Saw and 6 inch Jointer combination from E.W. In 1963/64 he decided to set up a small wood working business in Schweizer Reneke, a small maize farming town situated in the North West Province of South Africa. My First Association with Rockwell Delta Machinery ¶My first association with Rockwell Delta machinery came about indirectly through my late father. My grateful thanks to all those who responded and gave me the leads.įor those interested in the background, I hope you find this story as interesting as I did compiling it.
![delta rockwell table saw vintage delta rockwell table saw vintage](http://www.old-woodworking-tools.net/images/delta-scroll-saw-21260186.jpg)
The responses to that letter made this booklet possible. I could not find out much about this nor the circumstances thereof, so I eventually wrote to the Editor of the Eastern Province Herald, the newspaper that serves the Port Elizabeth area, asking for help from anyone who had any information on the Rockwell Delta / Tauco plant in Port Elizabeth.
![delta rockwell table saw vintage delta rockwell table saw vintage](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6aMAAOSwgH1dhD6d/s-l300.jpg)
However there seemed to be some disparity between the USA export Tauco and the South African Tauco. I then discovered that Rockwell Delta actually had a manufacturing plant in Port Elizabeth, South Africa at some time and that these machines were also labelled as Tauco. It was only many years later that I found out that Tauco was the export arm of Rockwell Delta USA and that Rockwell Delta machines were exported under that name. I had always wondered why my father’s machine was branded a Rockwell Delta yet in the catalogue, an identical machine-in fact, most of the machines-were labelled as Tauco. It all began with my late father including a 1964 Tarry’s Tool Catalogue inside a crate containing a wood work machine which he shipped to me from Australia. Preface ¶The seed for this booklet was planted in my curiosity many years ago.