The inauguration of the Sabang mail service — the festive piloting of the first mailboat, the Koning Willem III of the Stoomvaart Maatschappij “Nederland”, into the harbour of Sabang on 29 September 1903 in the presence of Governor Van Heutsz — brought Atjeh into the direct mail connection with Europe and confirmed Sabang’s arrival as an ocean harbour.
The festive entry
“Te wereld was bij deze gelegenheid dat, de eerste administrateur van de Sabanghaven, de heer C. G. Vattier Kraane, werd benoemd tot ridder in de Oranje Nassau Orde, als erkenning voor de energieke wijze waarop hij in de moeilijke eerste jaren het beheer had gevoerd” — it was on this occasion that the first administrator of the Sabang harbour, C. G. Vattier Kraane, was appointed knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau, in recognition of the energetic way in which he had conducted the management in the difficult first years. Van Heutsz, whom the company history names as one of the two men who had given the impulse to the establishment (with J. M. H. van Oosterzee), witnessed before his departure to Holland the “opening of the Ocean harbour Sabang and therewith of Atjeh in the direct mail connection with Europe”: the mail steamers of the company “Nederland” had taken the route over Sabang and Singapore on the out- and home-voyages since September 1903.
Effects
Author Joh. Langhout calls the decision “de kroon op ‘t werk” (“the crown on the work”): from that year onward the seaport Sabang counted as a fixed call, whereby Atjeh from that date was in regular connection with the mother country and with foreign countries, while Sabang on its side received all the advantages of an international harbour place. The company “Nederland” gave a laudable proof of cooperation by considerably lowering her freight prices from the Netherlands to Sabang. All this had for result that the post offices at Sabang, Oelèë Lheue and Koeta Radja had to be enlarged and equipped for the full mail- and parcel-service; the post-ships returning every fortnight from Holland brought a pleasant bustle to the beautiful Poelò We, and in still shorter intervals the cargo vessels made Sabang an important shipping and transhipment harbour; in the same year 1903 the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij opened a line from Deli to Sabang, chiefly for the transport of tobacco and rubber.
See Also
- Sabang
- Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland
- Maatschappij Zeehaven en Kolenstation Sabang
- Johannes van Heutsz
- 1903
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 86, 145–146, 154–155, 179.