A kettingganger — literally a “chain-walker” — was a convict sentenced to labour in irons, employed in large numbers on Dutch military works and transport in Groot-Atjeh alongside hired koelies (porters).
Under Van der Heijden
G. B. Hooijer recorded that the great encampment raised by the columns of General van der Heijden at Toengkoeb contained, besides two battalions of infantry, a detachment of cavalry, three sections of artillery, sappers and survey personnel, een stoet van duizend dwangarbeiders en koelies — a train of a thousand convict labourers and coolies. At the bivouacs on both banks of the Atjeh-rivier near Anagaloeng, honderden en nogmaals honderden koelies en kettinggangers brachten op hun matjes de nachten door onder afdakjes, waaronder zij nauwelijks konden staan — hundreds upon hundreds of coolies and convicts passed the nights on their mats beneath lean-tos under which they could scarcely stand.
The lamplighter of Tjot Rang
During the investment of Tjot Rang in April 1896, Hooijer recorded that de brutale kettingganger, tevens lantaarnopsteker, tried under the enemy’s fire to catch some fish from the surrounding pools as a delicacy for the officers, while the garrison looked out from one day to the next for relief.
Coolies in transport
Hired Achehnese coolies formed part of the fortnightly vivres transports, carrying tandoes and provisions, and a thousand coolies were to have been assembled by Toekoe Djohan at Biloel on 29 March 1896 for the action against Lamkrak.
See Also
Source
De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 10, 12, 22, 36, 46.