Charles Theunissen skryf:
Voor hy die naam Diasstrand gekry het, was dit eers bekend as Pearly Beach.
Hierdie naam, volgens navorsing, is gegee na aanleiding van die baie perlemoene (van die Nederlandse woord, paarlemoer, wat 'moeder van die pêrel' beteken) wat destyds op die strand uitgespoel het.
Harry Scholtz, gebore in Mosselbaai se Hillstraat, het hom in my boek, Old Sunnyside Mosselbaai, soos volg uitgespreek: "Why is this beach now called Pearly Beach? Because you can pick up a shell there, with sometimes a pearl in it. That's the same shell you get on beaches in California, USA."
Behalwe Pearly Beach was daar nog twee name aan Diasstrand gekoppel: Pansy en Rosebud. Daar is nie veel bekend oor die naam Pansy Beach nie, maar wel oor Rosebud Beach. Die Rosebud was 'n skip wat op 30 Augustus 1888 in die omgewing van Dias gestrand het. Die destydse bekende plaaslike rubriekskrywer vir Mossel Bay Advertiser, Theunsie Heunis, het in die middel 1960's onder die opskrif "Shipwrecks on the Mossel Bay coast" die volgende met lesers gedeel:
In memory of the Rosebud, a schooner driven ashore in a South-East gale at Mossel Bay.
Right bravely o'er the dancing waves, on a bright and a sunny day,
Of all the sights the brightest far, she gaily made the bay.
She anchored in the roadstead calm, but ere a week was o'er,
Ere her burden was unladen, she was driven on the shore.
Beaten hard by wind and wave, the brave ship tried her best.
Until upon the sandy bight she found at last her rest.
Drooping, the beauteous Rosebud fell by cruel wind minds distrest.
"There had been a heavy southeast gale since last night. The three-masted schooner Rosebud drifted and, after an unsuccessful attempt to beat out, went ashore. All the crew were saved. The vessel will probably become a total wreck. The gale was accompanied by heavy rain. The Rosebud was from Calcutta, bound for here and Cape Town."
Die Rosebud-insident het 'n dag ná die gebeure, op 31 Augustus 1888, in die Eastern Province Herald verskyn. Dié aanhaling is uit die Herald. Heunis het dit in die Cape Argus Archives gekry en ook by die rubriek ingesluit.
Met springgety kan 'n wrak, glo dié van die Rosebud, op Dias gesien word.
