Gaspar Strait

The Gaspar Strait ( id, Selat Gaspar) is a strait separating the Indonesian islands Belitung ( en, Billiton, link=no) and Bangka. It connects the Java Sea with the South China Sea.

Etymology

The strait is named after a Spanish captain, who passed through it in 1724 ''en route'' from Manila to Spain.

Geography

The strait lies off the east coast of Sumatra, and is formed between the large islands Banca and Billiton. Pulo Leat, or Middle Island, separates the strait into two principal branches.

The western branch, between Pulo Leat and the southeastern part of Banca, is often called Macclesfield Strait. The eastern branch, between Middle Island, and Long Island, near Billiton, is generally called Clements' Strait, after Captain Clements, who commanded the fleet from China that went through it in July 1781.

Gaspar Island, or Pulo Glassa, , lies approximately 24 miles north of Middle Island and approximately 18 miles from Tanjong Brekat . The largest islands in the strait are Lepar, Pongok and Mendanau.

History

Prior to the Spanish captain's passage through the strait in 1724, Captain Hurle, returning from China in the British East India Company ship , had passed through, in March 1701.

Over time, the strait came to be part of the main shipping route between Singapore and the Sunda Strait (which separates Sumatra from Java, and is an entrance to the Indian Ocean). The waters in and around the strait had many navigational hazards, and the strait itself, although frequently used, was considered to be especially perilous. According to the Great Britain Hydrographic Department’s ''The China Sea Directory'', vol. 1 (1878):

On 6 February 1822, the ''Tek Sing'', a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk, sank in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals, near the northern entrance to the strait.

In 1854, the British Admiralty first issued an Admiralty chart of the strait. It was based on surveys conducted by the United States Navy. The chart was continually updated, most notably following surveys conducted by W. Stanton, a Royal Navy a sailing master, in 1861, and with the assistance of Dutch charts, prepared by the then colonial ruler of the then Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

Wreck discovery

In 1998, fishermen discovered a block of coral encrusted with pieces of ceramic, at the depth of about 16 meters. From a large jar they removed several bowls intact. These divers by chance had just made the greatest underwater archeological discovery ever made in Southeast Asia: a 9th-century Arab dhow, loaded with over 60,000 gold and silver objects, and manufactured ceramics under the Tang Dynasty. The boat and its cargo, dubbed ''Belitung shipwreck'', testified that Tang China was producing mass-produced commercial items that it exported by sea. Arab sailors were clearly traveling along the maritime silk route, trading at a great scale and over long distances. The port of departure and the destination of the dhow are unknown. Most scholars believe dhow was heading to the Middle East, probably from Guangzhou (Canton), the largest port on the Silk Road. Many Arabs and Persians lived in Guangzhou in the 9th century. Among the tens of thousands of bowls found in the wreck, one bore this inscription: ''The sixteenth day of the seventh month of the second year of the reign of Baoli, '' or 826 apr. The mass-produced nature of the cargo and the geographical diversity of its production suggest that it was an export item made to order.

Notes

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Straits of Indonesia
Landforms of the Bangka Belitung Islands
Java Sea
Straits of the South China Sea
Straits of the Indian Ocean