ABW Dec 2020-1

CRUISING
In Another
CENTURY
Words by BRUCE CURRAN
Photographs & Illustrations as Credited
I
n 1755 a remarkable mariner and a man of many
talents cruised through the southern Philippine Islands.
Captain Thomas Forrest, a Scotsman, chose a Philippine
sailboat for his voyages. He created hydrographic charts
and drew meticulous illustrations along his routes.
He had a talent for relating to and befriending local people
on his travels. The Sultan of
Acheh in northern Sumatra
knighted him with the Order of
the Golden Sword in 1764. The
Forrest Strait off the coast of
Myanmar (Burma) is named after
him.
In 1755, in the southern
Philippines, the Sultan of
Maguindanao ceded Forrest the
island of Bunwoot, today’s Bongo island, west of Polloc
Harbor in the Moro Gulf.
He had set out in 1744 in a triple-masted Sulu prahu called
the Tartar Galley from Balambangan, an island off the northwest
coast of Borneo.
He sailed via the Sulu Archipelago through the Moluccas
and eventually to New Guinea.
First, the boat could skirt
the shorelines in waters
that could not be entered
by the much deeper Dutch
schooners that patrolled
these waters.
On the return journey he passed the Moluccas again, with a
prolonged stay in Mindanao, and then on to North Borneo,
and Straits of Malacca and on to Acheh and Bengkulu in
western Sumatra, finishing his epic journey in 1776. His Sulu
prahu was 40 feet long, with a 20 foot long keel, a draft of
3.5 feet, and a weight of 10 tons. It carried four lantakas, or
swivel guns, controlled by his English gunner.
It was crewed by a multi-ethnic
team of 22 people including
Visayan, Hindustani, British,
Maguindanaoan and Moluccan
sailors - this motley crew boasted
names like Rum Johnny, Strap,
Ishmael Jerrybattoo, Andrew,
Marudo, Panjang and his pilot
Tuan Hadjee.
The boat was powered by sails on three masts but it could
be rowed when winds were absent or contrary. The choice
of a shallow draft vessel was deliberate for several reasons.
First, the boat could skirt the shorelines in waters that could
not be entered by the much deeper Dutch schooners that
patrolled these waters. These were also coral waters where
a shallow draft was a tremendous advantage. Charting and
mapping could be made more accurate by passing close to
shorelines.
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