Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

Had some time to kill this morning in Jakarta so I went to the 600-year-old port of Sunda Kelapa where a fleet of working wooden cargo ships were being loaded with fertilizer. The freight is loaded onto the ships old style; the workers carry 50 kilo bags on their backs and walk on board across thick wooden planks. The freight is motored from Jakarta to Borneo over a period of four days. Most of these decrepit wooden ships are underpowered sometimes with --- I was told --- 200 horsepower motors!

The hulls are entirely made of wood. You can see the rust stains from the bolts used to hold the hulk together:



This one was in really bad shape. I think it may be out of commission and just used as some one's home:




A few of the ships carry small sails as supplemental power:



You can see the workers loading 50 kg bags of fertilizer into the cargo hold in the center. They don't use a crane --- just walk across on those planks at right carrying bags one by one:



You can see the caulk used to seal the wooden hull in the unpainted ship at right:



These guys paddled me around so I could get a close look at the ships. You can't see it in this picture, but the water is full of thousands of floating plastic bags and assorted trash:



This guy is sitting on one of the massive wooden logs that're swung down to keep the ship on course. The sterns are so wide that I assume the rudder alone is not large enough to keep it straight in heavy seas. In that case, they drop this tree-sized piece of wood down the side into the water and lash it in place:



Wooden boats constantly take water so they have these bilge pumps going just to keep them afloat:



This was written on the sea wall separating the port from the slums on the other side:



You can see the Jakarta slums in the background here. When the taxi dropped me off, I got lost for about 40 minutes back there trying to find the ships. You ever strolled through a bona fide slum? Smells like fresh human poop, dirty dishwater and rotten fish:



This doesn't look very seaworthy! The sidestays for the mast are held down with lanyards. I saw lots of unseaworthy-looking rigs today: