Tanjung Priok (Dutch Tandjong Priok) was the great harbour works constructed by the Dutch state on the eastern side of the bay of Batavia, on Java, at about eight kilometres’ distance from the chief place, between 1876 and 1883 — the principal public-works undertaking of the Netherlands-Indian government of the 1870s and a defining achievement of the administration of Governor-General J. W. van Lansberge. Planned in response to the dramatic expansion of steamship traffic that followed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the project replaced the inadequate older port facilities of Batavia with an enclosed basin harbour, a railway to the capital, and a shipping canal, carried out entirely in state management under the working-plan of chief engineer J. A. A. Waldorp and the direction of engineer first class J. A. de Gelder of the Indies waterstaats-corps (hydraulic-engineering corps). Its construction set the precedent for the state railways and other large colonial public works, and the harbour remains the main port of Jakarta to this day.
Background
In the early 1870s there were no proper harbours in Nederlandsch-Indië. As a contemporary account put it: “Actual harbours, as these are understood to mean enclosed basins where ships lie in still water and can unload and load immediately at the shore, do not as yet exist in Indië. Everywhere loading and unloading takes place by means of praus, in which the goods are loaded and which, in most places, by river-mouths or by specially dug salt-water canals between heads, maintain communication with the shore.”
Batavia’s harbour in particular had become increasingly inadequate: steamships had to anchor far from shore due to silting, the reede-transport (lighterage) was inefficient and expensive, and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had dramatically increased shipping traffic. Especially since the important extension of steam navigation to the Indies, the necessity of obtaining a proper seaport at Batavia made itself more and more felt. Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands initiated the project in 1871, and by the budget for 1873 moneys were allowed for an investigation, which finally gave the preference to a harbour at Tandjong Priok, eastward in the bay of Batavia.
The Commissions
The Indies commission, appointed to examine the various harbour plans, considered Tandjong Priok too far from the capital and gave, in its majority, the preference to the plan of the heer Maarschalk for the construction of a harbour 1200 to 1500 metres east of the existing harbour canal. The Netherlands commission — consisting of the heeren P. Caland, inspector of the waterstaat (hydraulic engineering), J. A. A. Waldorp, chief engineer, and A. R. Blommendal, kapitein-ter-zee titular (titular sea-captain), chief of the hydrography — in whose hands the report of the Indies commission of 15 July 1874 was placed, gave in its report of 23 March 1875 its seal to the opinion of the minority of the Indies commission: that only the construction of a harbour at Tandjong Priok deserved recommendation. The government agreed with the latter opinion, and by the budget for 1876 the first moneys for the great work were set aside.
The project nevertheless faced opposition from the Batavian commercial community, who preferred the existing location for the harbour; the Batavian Chamber of Commerce petitioned against the project, leading to debates in the States-General. The high cost — the supplementary credit alone was estimated at some 2.5 million guilders — was a concern, especially given the financial strain of the Atjeh-oorlog. Colonial Minister Van Bosse complained that “the engineers are increasingly taking the keys to the treasury.”
Construction
As the auction did not succeed, the work was undertaken in its own management by the state according to a working-plan of the chief engineer Waldorp, under the direction of the engineer first class of the Indies waterstaats-corps J. A. de Gelder — who, together with L. G. Bouricius, had been sent from the Netherlands to lead the construction — assisted by two other engineers who had first studied the great harbour works in Europe. The work was carried out entirely by the government because, as Alting Mees noted, “the only contractors who could be considered were not giving sufficient guarantees for proper execution.” The main points of the plan were approximately:
“At Tandjong Priok a voorhaven [outer harbour] shall have to be constructed, enclosed between two sea-heads, which together are 3728 metres long; further a binnenhaven [inner harbour] 1300 metres long and 175 metres broad, with two loskaden [unloading quays], which together will be 1388 metres long. The harbour terrain shall have to be provided with the necessary establishments, as entrepôts, loskranen [cranes], railways, etc. Between the harbour and the chief place Batavia there shall have to be constructed a railway of almost 8 km with double track, a rijweg [carriage road] — 15 metres broad — and a shipping canal with jaagpad [tow-path].”
The works were estimated to cost more than 19 million guilders and to be completed within nine years; De Gelder promised completion within three years and costs “well below the estimate.” The harbour was built on a foundation of pure sea sand, which proved ideal for construction and improved sanitary conditions on the site. Inland workers were trained as supervisors, machinists, and telegraphers, replacing unreliable European personnel.
The enormous quantity of natural stone required for the work was taken from the trachyte cliffs at Merak, on the Strait of Soenda. Stone-exploitation was carried out by compressed-air drills, the borings charged with dynamite or lithofracteur, the stones transported by steam-cranes to hopper-barges, which brought them to Tandjong Priok, where they were dumped by opening valves in the bottom of the barges. The dredging in the voorhaven was done with steam dredging-mills of particularly great capacity, also used to clear the coral reefs. The binnenhaven at Tandjong Priok was entirely dug out of the coast: where previously coconut gardens had stood, at a height of 2 metres above low water, in a few years great sea-going ships would have to enter to unload and load along a masonry quay.
Progress and Completion
During the execution modifications in the working-plan proved necessary here and there. The rock-borers at Merak fell short, and large galleries were begun to undermine the rocks and bring about cave-ins on a large scale. It proved difficult always to find the necessary working personnel; it was decided to replace the concrete blocks with cheaper and harder trachyte blocks. A favourable circumstance was that, unexpectedly, ample use could be made of sand-dumping:
“When the experiments were made, it was expected that the sand, suddenly dumped in quantities of 100 to 300 m³, would drive the mud sideways and take its place. It was found, however, that the sand did not drive away the mud, but mixed with it, and that thereby a particularly hard ground was formed, which in many places could not be pierced with iron sounding instruments and gave a clearly audible sound when the lead struck it. The sand-dumpings have therefore been continued, and as a precaution they have been enclosed between trachyte dams.”
By the end of 1880 the work was already so far advanced “that the steamship Koning der Nederlanden of the Stoomvaartmaatschappij Nederland — 105 metres long — with a draught of 23½ feet, on the return voyage from Batavia to Amsterdam, on 17 December [1880] could anchor at the entrance of the binnenhaven. On 11 April [1881], on arrival from the Netherlands, the same ship with full cargo again dropped anchor at Tandjong Priok and could without the least delay pass from the buitenhaven [outer harbour] to the binnenhaven, where the passengers found opportunity to step ashore over a gangway.” The harbour was completed in 1883 — a significant achievement of colonial infrastructure, and a milestone in the modernisation of Java facilitating trade and communication with the Netherlands and the wider world.
Significance and Legacy
The construction of Tandjong Priok was one of the principal public works of the Netherlands-Indian government in the 1870s, and was closely connected with the introduction of the personeele belasting (personal tax) and patentrecht (patent duty) for Europeans and foreign Orientals in 1879 — one of the principal grounds for the defence of which was that the great public works undertaken by the state in this period came for a great part to the benefit of the Europeans established in the Indies. The project also demonstrated the government’s ability to undertake large-scale public works and set a precedent for other projects, including the state railways. Tanjung Priok remains the main port of Jakarta to this day.
See Also
- Batavia
- Java
- J. W. van Lansberge
- Hendrik of the Netherlands
- J. A. de Gelder
- L. G. Bouricius
- Waldorp
- Caland
- Blommendal
- Merak
- Suez Canal
- Stoomvaartmaatschappij Nederland
- Personeele belasting
- Patentrecht
- State Railways
- Netherlands India
- P. P. van Bosse
- F. Alting Mees
- Aceh War
Source
De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 59-63.
J.W. van Lansberge en de praktijk van art. 4 van de Geheime Instructie van 5 Juni 1855, by M. Boon, Academisch Proefschrift ter verkrijging van den graad van doctor in de letteren en wijsbegeerte aan de Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1943, Utrecht: N.V. A. Oosthoek’s Uitgevers-Maatschappij, pp. 157-159.