The blockade of the Atjeh coast of 1884–1885 was the naval closure measure which, from 16 June 1884, kept the coasts of Atjeh shut — at first as a cover of the secret preparation of the concentration — with a fleet of, in all, thirty-odd vessels of different services, more than five months long. Voted in the Kamer on 16 June 1884 (at 1⅔ million guilders), the blockade cost, with wear and tear, probably double that sum, and could like the concentration itself be reckoned at three million; judged by the general-reported verdict, it had little or no result.
The vessels
To uphold the closing measure were used, as Verstege lists in 1886: two steamships of the auxiliary squadron; eighteen of the Indian military marine; three hopper-barges of the Batavian harbour works, “made fit” for naval service; three steam barges; two lifeboats; and five steam vessels of the Batavian harbour works. “Ik ben nu wel geen deskundige, maar geloof toch geen te gewaagde bewering uit te spreken, wanneer ik zeg dat geen andere oorlog ooit een zonderlinger samenraapsel van vaartuigen heeft bijeen gezien dan die Atjehblokkade van 1884 en 1885” (“I am no expert, but believe I do not make too bold a statement when I say that no other war has ever gathered so strange a hodgepodge of vessels as this Atjeh blockade”), wrote Verstege; and the most painful part was that this strange medley showed even more clearly than in 1873 how the Dutch seapower of the day was only a faint shadow of former greatness, so that by the foreigner this blockade flotilla could only be spoken of with a pitying smile.
The varying stated purposes
Verstege lays the contradictions in the official explanations of the blockade’s object side by side: according to the Koloniaal Verslag it was to serve the strict maintenance of the general prohibition of import and export, and the exercise of the fishery in the closed coast states, as well as the strict observance of the prohibition on import and transport of war matériel and opium along the remaining coast parts; according to the ministerial declarations (12 November 1885) the object was to prevent the Atjehnese coast states from importing war matériel and opium into Groot-Atjeh during the concentration, and so as it were to cover that war operation — a cheap and, had it been applied earlier, an effective means. In the Memorie van Antwoord of December 1884 on the Indian budget for 1885, the Minister said that the concentration would be paired with a severe shutting of a great part of the Atjehsche coasts, “om een einde te maken aan het verzet, dat steeds uit de kustlandschappen werd gevoed” (“to make an end to the resistance, which was always fed from the coastal districts”); while from the negotiations at London of July 1884 over the Tenom question it became known that the blockade was intended to quicken the submission and pacification of the whole land, and this chiefly in the interest of honest trade for the future — an object to be obtained only by exerting pressure on all — the English granting permission for its execution only on condition that the harbours of the Tenom pirate would be left open and that, as soon as the said object were obtained, the Atjehsche harbours would be reopened to world trade. “Ook met opzicht tot deze blokkade is de waarheid dus nog moeilijk te ontdekken” (“Also concerning this blockade the truth is hard to discover”). From many sides it was asserted that the little result was for a good part due to the fact that the commander of the blockade flotilla, kapitein ter zee C. H. Bogaert, had his hands so tied from the beginning that all chance of success was excluded. Verstege contributes one more trigger of the retreat: the enemy was, throughout the retreat, amply provided with arms and ammunition — for such a success the blockade should have been instituted much earlier.
See Also
- Blokkade
- C. H. Bogaert
- Nisero affair (1883–1885)
- Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
- Staatsblad No. 105 van 1884
- 1884
Source
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 86-87. OCR-filename: 20260801_235605_DLP-158-Een_beroep_op_het_Nederlandsche_volk_in_zake_het_Atjeh_vraagstuk_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.