The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [28]
We rowed down the river and then the bay for three hours against wind and tide, bow on to the heavy rollers, and at last reached the mouth of the bay [that is, the mouth of the Mandovi river], where is the fort. We remained bobbing about in the open sea in the trough of great waves for a considerable time. A violent storm of rain, thunder, and lightning came on . . .
so they went back to the fort to take shelter. On finally hearing the gun of the steamer, they set off again and reached the steamer after an hour, and then had a hazardous time getting on board it.28
A similar impact of colonial needs was seen in East Africa, again then showing the impact of political decisions on the fate of port cities. In earlier times the sheltered river mouths or estuaries were accessible through the coral, as the rivers' discharges affect coral growth and create gaps in the reef for ships to enter. Once steam ships arrived bigger harbours were needed, and Mombasa replaced all the others as only it had a reasonable harbour. But even in Mombasa economic changes dictated changes in the port. The old dhow harbour was incapable of taking larger ships, and was replaced by the new Kilindini harbour on the other side of the island.
Sri Lanka again bears out the dominant influence of land matters over maritime ones, that is that again a good harbour does not necessarily create an important port. At one time Galle was the main port for Sri Lanka, but in the later nineteenth century Colombo was better placed to serve the plantations inland, and so a viable port was created at vast expense. For that matter, Trincomalee had a much better harbour, but its location, in the wrong place to service through-traffic crossing the Indian Ocean, dictated that it never flourish.
The Red Sea also shows how ports are often located on intrinsically hostile shores simply because this location is determined by inland needs. Suez was located to service through-traffic from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, both before and after the opening of the Suez Canal. Isabel Burton in 1876 wrote that 'Suez is a most inaccessible place, and steamers anchor in the bay, an hour's steam from the town, and much more by sail; if you leave your steamer, and if there is a contrary wind you can never be sure of getting back to it.' Nor did things improve as her ship went down the Red Sea. Jiddah if anything was worse, yet was essential as the disembarkation place for pilgrims bound for nearby Mecca, and as the hinge connecting the northern and southern reaches of the Red Sea.
I never could have imagined such an approach to any town. For twenty miles it is protected by nature's breakwaters – lines of low, flat reefs, huge slabs of madrepore and coralline that cut like a knife, barely covered, and not visible till you are close upon them; there is no mark or lighthouse, save two little white posts, which you might mistake for a couple of good sized gulls; in and out of these you wind like a serpent; there is barely passage for one ship between them, and no pilot will attempt it, save in broad daylight...
and in fact her ship did collide with another when they finally reached the open roadstead.29
Port cities by definition are located on water, whether it be a river, a lake, an estuary, a delta, a harbour or an open coast. Yet not all maritime people, people of the sea, are in port cities. We can now consider the more general matter of coastal or littoral society. One focus here will be fisherfolk, and a discussion of them will segue easily into a concluding description of the most truly maritime people of all, those who actually live on the water.