The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [2]
My sources use a very wide variety of measures and units of currency. Where appropriate I have given metric equivalents, but in cases where the data merely gives an impression of change I have decided that conversions would be otiose, and I have retained the originals.
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Introduction
Our perceptions of the sea have changed dramatically over the last few decades. In a First World country, such as the Island Nation of Australia, where the vast bulk of the population lives within an easy drive of the shore, it is part of recreational life. Many people have their own boats, and follow round-the-world yacht races with interest. Celebratory occasions often feature the Tall Ships, some of their sails emblazoned with the logos of their sponsors. Children 'check the surf' every day after school. Historic replicas of more or less authenticity are popular. One example is the replica of the Batavia, an ill-fated Dutch East India Company ship which in 1629 sped across the southern Indian Ocean towards Australia, but failed to turn north towards Indonesia soon enough and instead ran aground on the Abrulhos Islands, 60 kms off the Western Australian coast. Stirring scenes of mutiny, murder, survival and executions followed. Part of the original ship has been salvaged and is displayed in a purpose-built museum in Geraldton. Indeed, this part of the Western Australian coast has been christened, with an eye to the tourist market, the 'Batavia Coast,' complete with marinas, souvenirs, and expensive development projects. The replica was built in the Netherlands between 1985 and l995 (the original was built in seven months in 1628) and has become a popular sight around the Australian coast.
For most of us today the sea has little practical significance. This is very recent. When I first went overseas from New Zealand in 1965 to America I travelled by sea, but this was just at the end of the sea era, for planes were becoming dominant, and I have only once travelled by sea again, except for pleasure. Yet, common perceptions aside, Australia is intricately tied in to the world, exporting raw materials and importing manufactured goods, and these are mostly carried by sea. Much of the world is dependent on oil from the Middle East, carried in great tankers across the Indian Ocean to First World destinations.
In the past the sea was much more central in our minds, connecting people and goods all over the world, inspiring great literature. Conrad, a novelist and a seaman, was one of the best. A ship is in the Arabian Sea, bound for the Cape of Good Hope:
The passage had begun, and the ship, a fragment detached from the earth, went on lonely and swift like a small planet. Round her the abysses of sky and sea met in an unattainable frontier. A great circular solitude moved with her, ever changing and ever the same, always monotonous and always imposing.1
Or more generally, this is what the open sea means to those who travel it:
The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land; and when He sends there the messengers of His might it is not in terrible wrath against crime, presumption, and folly, but paternally, to chasten simple hearts – ignorant hearts that know nothing of life, and beat undisturbed by envy or greed.2
This maritime literature, with its universal appeal, presented the sea as both mystical and utilitarian, and with a strong preference for sailing ships. The stunning series of maritime novels by Patrick O'Brian are, significantly, about men on sailing ships two hundred years ago. In contrast, how many great novels or poems have there been about air travel or container ships? Such sea literature as there is today reflects its recreational role.
For most of the past five millennia the sea was important for humans. Those who travelled long distances often went by sea. Today few travel by sea, some goods