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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. 42