Greybeard goes to Fort

A colleague, in fact my boss in NZ was delighted that I was going to be based in Colombo for 6 months. Not, as it turns out because he wanted rid of me for a while (or so I choose to believe), but rather because a relative was posted here with the Navy during World War 2 and there was research to be done here to fill in some blanks in a book he is writing.

 

I had heard that there was a Maritime Museum in Colombo, but was having no joy finding it by asking any of my local contacts. Taking my usual fallback position in these things I made Google my friend and quickly learnt that the Colombo Maritime Museum did in fact exist but due to some graphical electronic interfacial error was not where Google Maps said it was. In reality it was housed in the only remaining example of Dutch architecture in Colombo in the form of the original Dutch prison here right in the middle of the Sri Lankan Navy’s High Security Zone near the waterfront in Fort (a suburb of Colombo and also originally a Dutch fort)

During my first week here I had an encounter with an officious armed matelot near here as I strolled blissfully ignorant along the waterfront with my camera over my shoulder. Seems this area has been ‘off limits’ now for years – accounting for why no one knew about the museum.

Naturally I was dubious about another visit having heeded my earlier warning and stayed away ever since but nevertheless I engaged a local tuk tuk driver and set off armed with rough directions to look for an old Dutch Prison along the waterfront. Making eloquent use of his several words of English he explained to me that we would go along the waterfront road and try our luck to see how far we got and that if we were stopped he would interpret for me at a cost yet to be confirmed.

Away we went and upon reaching the first checkpoint it quickly became apparent that the security forces were becoming more user friendly and less aggressive. After some smiling, pointing and nodding and much parley in Sinhalese we were able to proceed, but only on foot. The next emplacement was equipped with a very large machine gun which pointed at us through the concertina wire as we walked toward it along the road. I was feeling a little nervous as I was again carrying a camera. Fortunately the gunner was as happy as his colleagues and cheerfully waved us on to the next point a few metres further on and staffed this time by police. This cheerful crew pointed to a long low building in the distance which, as we got closer proved to be the elusive museum and indeed was housed in an old prison like building.

Arriving at a wide open vehicle sized entrance maybe 10 metres from the museum door we were prevented from entering by a policeman who pointed at the ‘Exit’ sign on his gate and an ‘Entry’ sign back the way we had come. Retracing our steps for 75 metres we entered via the entry gate and returned along the inside of the fence to the point we were a couple of minutes earlier and on into the museum.

The museum is quite small, entry is free, and there are few exhibits, but it is interesting and has been well put together. Unfortunately, even after explaining what I wanted I was flatly refused permission to take photographs. I was keen to record one exhibit, and felt like a spy as I hung around until no one was looking before quickly taking out my phone camera and firing off a quick snap before sneaking guiltily to the exit – where I was able to buy for just 300 Rupees (around $3) a comprehensive colour guide to the museum containing detailed photographs of every exhibit I had just seen, several postcards, and a book on the history of the port!

I wandered sheepishly back with the tuk tuk driver / guide wondering how much his services were going to cost, but again was pleasantly surprised when after dropping me across town he gladly accepted my starting offer of 500 rupees ($5) for his mornings work!