The Hindu Business Line : (S)Porting history

The Mumbai Port has weathered many a storm, like wars, famines, plague, recession, strike and a major explosion in the dock, in its long and winding history, and has risen to new heights, making Mumbai prosperous.

IN many ways, the history of Mumbai is essentially the history of the Mumbai port. For, it was the port that laid the foundation for the development of the city.

Indeed, when General Ballard presided over the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Bombay port on July 3 1873, he was actually flagging off the city's development. The city grew from a tiny fishing village into a bustling metropolis and India's major gateway for trade.

Weathering many a storm, like wars, famines, plague, recession, strike and a major explosion in the dock, the port, in its long and winding history, rose to new heights, making Mumbai prosperous.

The port had to endure tough times in its formative years, with the Board struggling to mop up adequate revenues to meet its capital debt charges. Ironically, the famines in 1878-79 and 1877-78, spurred the port's growth, as during these years, India had to take recourse to large-scale import of grain. At about the same time, the port got its first wet dock — the Sasoon Dock at Colaba — to accommodate a maximum of five ships about 1,000 tonnes, which was followed by a second dock (Prince's Dock), which was constructed between 1875 and 1880 at a cost of Rs 67 lakh.

Historians have recorded that the year 1891 was a "bumper year" for the port, when cotton crop was the second largest ever known till then. That year, the total exports from the port touched Rs 41 crore in value terms, more than 50 per cent that of the previous two years.

But the subsequent years saw the port struggle again, which was largely due to the bubonic plague that hit this part of the country. Historians have noted that the disease could have been brought to Bombay by rats on grain ships from Hong Kong. But the plague spread like wildfire, causing people to flee the city and Indian and foreign ports to impose quarantine against imports from the Bombay port.

The plague was still on when another tragedy struck the State — the monsoon failed in 1899, resulting in one of the worst famines in India. Cattle died in large numbers, while the famous Gujarat breed of cows almost disappeared. These tragedies took a heavy toll on Bombay's trade — exports of wheat shrunk to a trickle and arrivals of cotton in 1899-1900 declined drastically.

But then the port was able to quickly recover, especially after the construction of the Ballard Pier, which was originally a small pier with an approach jetty. For years, Ballard Pier was the centre of business activity not just for Bombay, but, for the whole of India.

Historians have recorded that between 1900-01 and 1913-14, the total imports and exports increased from 3.50 million tones to 5.10 million tones. However, from 1915-16 and 1941-42, the port had a chequered existence, which came to a head on April 14 1944 when a major explosion rocked the port. An ammunition ship that berthed that day on Victoria Dock exploded. The ship carried 31 wooden crates, each containing four bars of gold measuring 15 inches by 3 inches. In fact, according to historical accounts, the ship arrived at Karachi on March 30 1944 for unloading part of the cargo, which was replaced by 8,700 bales of raw cotton, hundreds of drums of lubricating oil, timber, sulphur and fish manure.

The chief officer of the ship, Mr. Uzuriaga, detected a wisp of smoke spiralling from one of the ventilators of number two hold. Minutes later, the ship exploded and all hell broke loose. Of the 24 ships in the two docks at the port, 11 were soon on fire, some of them sinking like a fiery ball into the sea. There were a series of explosions, which killed more than 230 and injured about 475, including officers. The reason was identified as an "accidental ignition of the cotton in the number two hold". It took time for the port to recover from the explosion, but eventually it did rise like a phoenix.

In the pre-independence days, the main exports from the port were cotton, tea, pepper, spices, copra and ores, while imports comprised a wide variety of finished products. But after Independence, the introduction of the Five Year Plans resulted in a sharp increase in India's maritime trade and with this the fortunes of the port turned. In fact, in 1949 the traffic had risen so sharply that the labour at the port launched a go-flow campaign, as it was not being able to cope up with the workload. However, the port began to add new facilities like the marine oil terminal in 1955 and the modernisation programme in 1959 and the construction of four new berths in the extended basin of Alexdra Dock (later renamed as Indira Dock) in 1969.

The traffic correspondingly began to surge, from 7 million tones in 1950-51 it reached 18.27 million tones by 1966-67. The increase in traffic had made the Mumbai port India's premier port, until recent years when it slipped down, as the port was not prepared to handle container traffic. However, the port, with its vibrant history and heritage, is not calling it a day. Instead, it is striving determinedly to regain its past glory by re-working its strategy.

Picture by Shashi Ashiwal

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