On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:53:10 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:



Sorry to disillusion you but they "didn't move to Indonesia -- those
guys had been there since the Portuguese, or before.

Bruce, Merely a "tongue in cheek" remark. They have been there long
before the Portugese as the Molluccans have been using these boats to
trade with the Aborigines of northern Australia since before Europeans
ventured near these waters. They bought beche de la mare or sea dried
cucumbers and pearls in a peaceful annual trade. Don't know what they
exchanged for them though. I presume that there was no merchant bank
system in the area at the time, possibly because there were no
computers. I know that there is reference to these boats and trade
with South East Asia from Tang and Sung dynasty times.

Nope, wrong again :-(

The word Pinisq that I used (usually spelled as pinisi) had a
European, usually schooner, rig on a native hull so these specific
boats post dated the Portuguese.


Eng Hok was a Chinese anyway. And if it was traditional teak it
certainly was a millionaire he was building it for. I've seen some of


No it wasn't teak - some Indonesian timber species.

We had a project to inspect a oil supply base on an island about half
way between Balikpapan and Suribaya (forgot the name) to see whether
it was reasonable to rebuild it. In any event due to the island being
an atoll there was a pretty long jetty and a dock at the end. After we
did our inspection and did the numbers we made out presentation to the
Oil Companies. The deck of the dock was in really poor shape and we
had proposed a pre cast concrete deck to replace it.

During the presentation one of the engineers suggested that we
consider "Iron wood" in place of the pre cast concrete. So we costed
it out. I had a bloke who had been working for timber companies in
Indonesia for twenty years or more and spoke the lingo like a native,
go down to the Buggis harbor in Jakarta and talk with the lads.

The up shoot was that even using illegally cut wood, smuggled to the
island, the wood was nearly twice the cost of the pre cast concrete --
which we duly reported.

The crews are very friendly and are always happy to show you around. I
guess that i have the advantage of being Matsalleh and also of my
surname (anglicised from the Greek) which is a common Indonesian first
name - always a conversation point
Muhammid? Ali? Abu Bakar?.

At sea on patrol Customs stops many of these barter trade boats and
examine their cargo which is bound for Malaysia - fresh fish in ice,
vegetables, water melons etc. - great for the patrol boat crew as they
can buy fresh food. The bottoms of the ice water chests have to be
probed as are all hideable spaces on board. The engines are dry
exhaust Chinese diesels and the heads are an open enclosed to waist
height squat board over the stern. You must be familiar with these.

We had a project manager who was a wooden boat lover on a job down in
Buggis Land who got pretty friendly with some of the captains and
crews. They were doing a lot of monsoon sailing back and forth to
Irian Jaya, I assume for either spices or alligator hides as they
wouldn't talk much about the cargo. Just that it was a year trip, N.E.
going down and S.W. coming back - in 25 foot boats?

He also talked to a bunch of the Schooner men. At that time they were
still sailing, and asked them where they went? "To Singapore". "Oh,
what do you carry?" "Oh, cement, rebar and rattan mostly." (All
forbidden to be exported, by the way.) "And, what do you bring back?"
"Well, you know, vidios, TVs, that kind of stuff." "And you offload at
Jakarta?" "Well, near Jakarta".

I admire the way that they manouvre. They may be four or five abreast
in port. The inner one against the wharf wants to get out. By the user
of lines and sheer prop power they manage to swing the outer boats
upstream and move out.


Butterworth has a host of old black wooden lighters that I though were
derelict and unused until I saw them unloading bulk Indian sugar from
a freighter moored in the stream. A tug towed them upriver past our
yacht.

I really have never been to Butterworth and always thought that was
Pinang's reason for being there, as a port.


Enough. Where are you now. Back in N.Z. as, "Honey can you take out
the garbage?" Or swanking around Central America as Captain Peter?

Yep! it's "Honey, take out the garbage", but in Sydney. I also go back
home to Penang via KL. every three or four weeks

I don't think that would work at my house. "Honey, I'm off for far
eastern places. Call if there are any problems."
She'd be there waiting when I arrived.


I plan to head back
to Curacao possibly in January.

It's a damned lie!! I have never swanked in my life. I don't own spats
for my shoes and don't have a gold tipped cane - at least that is my
image of swanking.

Well those wide legged British shorts and a pith helmet will do if you
have nothing else but remember that gentlemen do keep their tie tied.
Even in the colonies one must keep up appearances, you know.

Oh, by the way, I got those horrible pictures and will answer as soon
as I can think of something appropriate.



Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)