Page 62 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

of Arabs to the shore, where the whale hacl been cast up. The
smell of the decomposing whale was carried for several miles.
On October 6th, at n a.m., the Eden anchored in the harbour
ofTrincomalce, alongside I l.M.S. Minden, the flagship of Admiral
Sir Richard King, the Naval Commandcr-in-Chicf of the Indian
Seas, who later died ofcholera while he was Commandcr-in-Chief
at Sheerncss. As soon as the ship was secured at anchor, Loch
went ashore to the Admiral’s house, carrying the letters and des­
patches which lie had brought from England. The voyage from
Plymouth to Ceylon had taken three days less than four months,
including three days spent at Madeira and ten days at Rio dc
Janeiro.
Trincomalcc, which Nelson when he was a young man serving
in H.M.S. Sea Horse, described as ‘the finest harbour in the world*,
was taken by the British from the Hutch in 1795- It became an
important naval centre and dockyard, and in modern times it was
the headquarters of the Commandcr-in-Chicf, East Indies Station,
who used to visit the Gulf ports every year in his flagship.
Latterly, it was one of the few naval stations where the Admiral
was allowed to have his family with him on board his flagship.
Loch describes the ‘neat, well-built, small town’ on the shore
of Back Bay, with large houses surrounded by gardens for the
Governor, the Fort Major, and other officers and officials. On
the summit of a high cliff above the bay was a flagstaff, from which
signals were given to the Admiral’s house down below, notifying
the approach of ships. Loch was very critical of the defences of
Trincomalcc, which consisted of a fort on the isthmus near the
dockyard, and another fort on Osnaburg Hill, overlooking the
bay, but neither of these positions commanded the entrance to the
harbour. Of Osnaburg fort he says: ‘it docs not in any way
command the bay, indeed it might as well be placed in the sky for
all its utility as a protection*. Over i ,000 men were employed in
the dockyards, and their wages amounted to .£25,000 a year,
which Loch seems to have regarded as a very large sum. He
considered it ‘strange that so much money has been spent on
forming a remarkably nice dockyard, well stocked with naval
stores, yet there has not been one farthing laid out in protecting
it*
Loch mentions the heavy taxation at Trincomalcc. On a later
visit, he brought a basket containing about two dozen mangoes,
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