From Taman Fatahillah, the central cobblestone square of Batavia, the former capital of the Dutch East Indies, it is a short walk along Kali Besar to the old port of Sunda Kelapa at the estuary of the Ciliwung River. For three centuries, trading ships and military vessels sailed from the port as the Dutch expanded and consolidated their control of the Dutch East Indies, fighting off the English, the Portuguese and the pirates.
The harbor entrance was too narrow and shallow to accommodate larger vessels which had to anchor further north. Rowboats and smaller ships, known as lighters, were used to transport cargo and passengers to the port. In the 19th century, the condition of what the Dutch called the Haven Kanaal (Harbor Canal) deteriorated. It became costly and time-consuming to carry passengers and cargo into the port, and dangerous during stormy weather. In 1885, partly to accommodate increasing traffic following the opening of the Suez Canal, the colonial administration built a new port five miles to the east.
Today, Sunda Kelapa is lined with brightly painted wooden pinisi, the traditional two-mast wooden schooners that for centuries have carried cargo and people between islands. The first ships, said to be modeled on the Dutch pinnace, were built for the spice trade at Makassar, the VOC trading fort on the island of Sulawesi.
The modern version, with a crew of a dozen, is similar in design but longer and larger (up to 350 tons), with navigational equipment and a diesel engine. The pinisi no longer carry cloves, nutmeg, and other spices. Most were unloading tropical hardwoods such as camphor, meranti, and mahogany, logged in Kalimantan or Sulawesi, and taking on cement, sand, bricks, and other building materials.
I asked my port guide to describe a typical voyage. “One week from South Sulawesi to Jakarta with a cargo of wood,” he said. “Load up with cement and then three days to Jambi [a river port in central Sumatra], and back to Jakarta with a cargo of coconuts.” Although a few small cranes and winches were in operation, most of the loading was done by laborers, hoisting wooden planks on their shoulders and cement sacks on their backs. For transporting bulk materials across the archipelago, pinisi are still the cheapest and most efficient option.