Sri Lanka’s Eastern province
stretches some 200 miles (about 320 Km) along the seacoast from the kokkilai
Lagoon to Ruhunu (Yala) national park. It is justly famous for its beaches.
Tourists centers have sprung up in the Nilaveli area, 10 miles north of
Trincomalee, and around Kalkudha, 20 miles north of Batticaloa. Less well known but pleasant
beaches are found up and down the coast. Most of the East Coast is in sharp
contrast to the luxury beach resorts, however except when the northeast monsoon
makes its annual assault between October & January, it is a parched, dry
area, with poor soil that requires constant attention. Tamil, Hindus and
Muslims, many of them farmers & fishermen, forms the majority of the
population. Reminders still abound of a devastating 1978 cyclone that
complicated their already difficult lives. There are two major cities along the
East-Coast Trincomalee, whose harbor is considered one of the best sheltered on
earth, & Batticaloa, which like “Trinco” was a key Dutch & British
colonial outpost.
In recent years, the Eastern
Coast of Sri Lanka has been largely inaccessible due to ongoing civil strife
and many of the seaside resorts and hotels have fallen to neglect. Normalcy is
however, slowly returning to these areas along with the tourists. It is likely that before long the eastern
coast will once again become the focus of tourists from the world over.
TRINCO AND ITS HARBOR
Back in 1775, a teenaged
midshipman named Horatio Nelson arrived in Trincomalee Harbor aboard the H.M.D
Seahorse. Later, as admiral of the British Navy, he remembered it as “ the
finest harbor in the world” indeed, with its 33 miles (53 Kilometers) of
shoreline locked in by hills on three sides and protected by islands on the
fourth, it is hard to argue. In size. Trincomalee is the world’s fifth largest
natural harbor; but despite its potential, it has remained of secondary
economic importance. “Trinco” as its friends call it, was well known so Sri
Lanka’s inhabitant many centuries ago. This may have been the port where
Mahinda landed on his way to Mihintale to convert the Anuradhapura Kingdom to
Buddhist.
The first recorded European
landing was made in 1617 by a Dutch –sponsored Danish vessel. The port switched
hands back and forth between the Portuguese, Dutch , British and even French
until 1795, when England finally secured a grip on Trincomalee as its first
possession on the coast of Ceylon.
During the Second World War,
Trincomalee harbor was the home base for the combines East Asian fleets of all
allied powers. It remained a British, Royal navy base for many years after. The
Japanese staged an all-out air assault on the harbor on April 8, 1942. But the
allied forces having been previously alerted to the raid- had sent the fleet to
sea, and only two ships, one a merchant vessel, were destroyed in the harbor by
Japanese bombs and gunfire. About five idled with bombs. (it was rediscovered) in the 1970s by diver
Rodney Jonklaas, who followed the tales of fisherman to locate its hulk,
teeming with marine life) despite the setbacks, the British succeeded in
turning the Japanese away.
Today Trinco is far removed from
the sleepy market
center it once was. Civil unrest
has taken its toll. The visible military presence and uncertainty of terrorist
attacks, have dispelled the town’s easy going character. Trinco occupies a
finger of land that protects the harbor from the open sea.
