West and East Africa, and Yemen

The sparsely distributed signals in West and East Africa, together with ports on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, are considered in this chapter. Dakar had the most northerly time ball in Sub-Saharan Africa. A short-lived time ball on the Gold Coast was announced in 1839. A combined flag and gun signal was later used at Accra, replaced in turn by maroons, and a combined ball and gun signal at Takoradi. There is also thought to have been a time ball at Cotonou. An 1879 time ball at St Paul de Loanda was supplemented by time lights before 1927. A time ball at Lorenzo Marques was replaced by electric lights in 1909, thought to be their earliest use as a principal time signal. There was also a light signal at Beira, time guns at Dar es Salaam and Djibuti, and a time ball at Massawa. Aden used flag signals at Ras Marbut and Shamshan.