Historic ship docks in Cape

2004-01-05 10:31

Cape Town - An exact replica of an eighth century Indonesian sailing vessel which sailed the high seas about 1300 years ago, docked in Cape Town on Monday morning as part of an historic expedition tracing the ancient trade route between Indonesia and Africa.

Cape Town is the third and only official stopover for South Africa.

"The 20 metre ship is a double outrigger. It has a crew of 15 and is primarily a sailing vessel, but has rowing ports as well," said expedition leader Philip Beale.

He said the crew will be based in Cape Town for about a week, during which a number of cultural events would take place to highlight the Indonesian influence in Africa.

Beale said Indonesians influenced and traded with east Africa in the first millennium, as well as colonising large parts of Madagascar.

"Indonesia had the most successful maritime fleet at the time and was incredibly strong... maybe they got around Cape Point and up to west Africa where we see for example rice and banana trees growing," said Beale.

He said the design of the ship, called Borobudur, was based on reliefs found on the walls of the Borobudur temple in Java, the largest Buddhist temple in the world.

The ship departs for Accra in Ghana on the last leg of the expedition.

The Borobudur's adventures have taken her from Jakarta in Indonesia to Mahe in the Seychelles, where she arrived on September 12, 2003 to Mahajanga in Madagascar on October 14.

Inclement weather and strong winds along the South African coast forced the ship to take shelter and delayed her progress by a few weeks.

- SAPA