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By Gideon Malherbe,
Skipper
The third in
our
series by the skipper of
the Indies
Explorer
Click
for more info on
charter trips.
Part
3. Son
of Krakatoa
The volcano's central vent was blocked by a plug of solid lava and underneath the immense pressure was rapidly building. Krakatoa could hold no longer. The magmatic chamber of the volcano
began to rupture, letting the ocean in. Almost instantaneously the seawater transformed into superheated steam.
The explosion blew away the entire northern portion of Rakata Island, situated in the Sunda straight, between Java and Sumatra. It was early morning, 27 August 1883.
It blew more than 20 cubic kilometres of rock into the sky. Seventy pound boulders landed on islands 50 miles away. Volcanic ash and
debris reached as far west as Madagascar. The blast was heard at Rodriguez Island, 3000 miles away in the west Indian Ocean. In Singapore, 300 miles to the north, it went dark. Blue and green suns were observed as fine ash entered the stratosphere. Three months after the eruption these products had spread to higher latitudes causing such vivid red sunset afterglows that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration. Unusual sunsets continued for 3 years.
It was the most violent volcanic eruption recorded in world history.
But the worst was the wave. It radiated out from the remains of this island in the Sunda straight, between Sumatra and Java, travelling at a mind boggling 350 miles per hour, a pulsing monster set which invaded the north east Indian Ocean with unstoppable force. True to their character these Tsunamis were long period waves, with wave crests more than 100 miles apart. So fast do they travel, and so long is the wavelength, that a boat 120 miles away in the NW Indian Ocean did not even feel it passing. But on land it was the end of days.
The first pulse wasted the more than 60 villages on Java and Sumatra, arriving at Enggano island 100 miles up the coast only minutes after the blast. Enggano Island was a penal colony. Convicts were dropped on the beach by the Dutch colonists and on the island it was every man for himself. No-one survived the thick wall of water which simply engulfed the island. A death sentence to all.
Not much left of Enggano
Tiny Mega Island was next. Then the Mentawais.
The Mentawai Islanders are animists. They worship nature spirits. The chief nature spirits are in the sky, sea, jungle and earth. The sky spirits are considered very influential. But on Pagai Selatan the most important of all Gods is the God of the Ocean. Ten days prior they had felt the earthquake which preceded the blast, but for these inhabitants of the ring of fire, earthquakes were nothing new.
But now they were scared. For days they had been hearing the angry growls from the south, seeing the black plumes in the sky across the south eastern horizon. They had cause for concern. Because by August 11 all three vents of Krakatoa were actively erupting. And on that fateful day, 27 August, they felt the aftershock of the explosion's airwave passing over, like a squadron of 200 Russian Mig's flying low over the island at Mach 5. They heard the deep rumble of the explosion, saw the sky blacken in the
South.
Rapidly the sky darkened. Without setting, the sun went out. The village elders and priest on South Pagai Island held an emergency meeting. Something has gone horribly wrong. The Gods have been angered. In a desperate bid to save their souls they decided to kill every pig on the island, an action which would immediately surrender all their wealth, the ultimate sacrifice. But maybe they knew it was their last supper. So they ate well and went to sleep.
These days South Pagai island is better known for a crunching left hander called Thunders. But late that night in 1883, whilst the inhabitants of South Pagai were in dream land with their bellies full of roast pig, a special wave arrived at Thunders reef. As the seafloor becomes less deep, it drags on the wave and slows it down. This compresses the distance between wave crests.
Words can not describe what happened that night when the 100mile wavelength of the Krakatoa Tsunami started to compress and increases in height. The closer it got to the island, the bigger it got. Just kept on jacking until it measured more than 300 feet from trough to crest. This unimaginable force came to a dead stop on Thunders reef.
It threw a 20m thick lip which pitched out over the island, over the ancient village and the discarded pig carcasses AND FOR A SECOND, just a second, the whole of South Pagai Island was dry in this giant tube.
And they did not even know it.
In the next second, before total obliteration, the compressed air in the barrel blasted the priest and his entire house straight out the mouth and onto the shoulder.
Only then came the Thunder.
Its 2hrs after midnight. It is the last year of the millennium, 1999. The remainder of Rakata Island slips by on the starboard bow of the Indies Explorer. Its very quiet, the sea in the Sunda Straight is absolutely flat, the night sky is clear and black. Since the disappearance of Krakatau, smaller eruptions have been observed. The ocean floor has been since gradually rising, eventually giving birth in 1927 to a new island, north of what remains of Rakata.
Today, Anak Krakatau (Son of Krakatau) rises more than 150m above sea level and is 2km's in diameter. I get cold shivers as I watch the Son of Krakatoa, lying quiet across our port bow. A jagged crater, etched into the night sky by a rising full moon.
"Looks like an old Pink Floyd album cover" Nick says next to me.
I shiver: "Such perfect sailing conditions tonight. But one can only imagine what it must have looked like that day when it blew. Red lava spraying straight up into the sky like a burst pipe."
"Ja. It's a fireworks display I'd rather not witness."
"The hiss and steam as the molten lava sprayed into ocean…"
We fall silent, Nick and I, each thinking our own thoughts as Anak Krakatoa falls behind us, out of sight. Out of sight but never out of mind. Anak Krakatau has had at least nine episodes of activity since 1963, most lasting less than one year. The most recent episode began in March of 1994 and has continued to at least March of 1995.
Morning is only a few hours away.
Nick has calculated that according to our current speed, we will arrive at One Palm Point by 7am. The Indies Explorer cruises forward at a comfortable 9 knots. Our 12 charter guests are fast asleep, oblivious of the terrible events which took place here not so long ago. Sleep comes easy on the Indies Explorer. It's a combination of the gently rocking motion of the boat and the hypnotic hum of the engine…
Fall asleep in one place and wake up in the next. A universe you never knew existed. A universe parallel to the one you know so well, that comfort zone you created for yourself where nothing is knew.
We picked them up in Jakarta yesterday afternoon, and after much excitement and a few too many beers, all is now quiet. Alice in wonderland. Come aboard the Indies Explorer and open the door to a world you never knew existed. Whilst our guests were sleeping, they were transported through the looking glass.
When they wake up in the morning they will be in an island paradise. And after that things will never quite be the same again.
To
be
continued
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