Away from the hustle and bustle
of Jaffna town, passing the Ponnalai causeway one arrives at the Island
Karainagar. Situated at an islet at the tip of Karainagar, guarding the channel
between the islands of Karaitivu and Kayts, lies Fort Hammenhiel. While not
well known as Galle Fort, Hammenhiel is nevertheless steeped in history.
Built by the Portuguese in the
mid 17th Century, the fort was named Fortaleza do caes and served on the north
just as Mannar fort did on south, guarding the passage by water to the Castle
Fort of Jaffna.
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| Entrance to the Fort |
However the fort was captured by Dutch in 1658, through the leadership of
Captains Cornelies Reb, Piester Waset and N. van de Reede. According to
Historic accounts relating the siege the Fort was conquered only following a
fortnight of heavy bombardment from the shore which caused heavy damage to the
wooden rain water tank. It is said the Portuguese had to surrender due to the
scarcity of water at the Fort after their water tank was destroyed in the Dutch
attack.
Once claimed the fort was renamed
by the Dutch as ‘Fort Hammenhiel’. Amusingly the name translates to Heel of
Ham. According to historians the Portuguese thought the shape of Ceylon
resembled a smoked ham and as the picturesque fort was at the point where the
shank bone projects, they are said to have given it the strange name. The Dutch
invariably maintained a garrison of thirty men under the charge of a Lieutenant
or Ensign in the fort. According to RL Brohier in his book ‘Links Between Sri
Lanka and Netherlands’ the early Dutch Governors had made very special mention
in their records that Hammenhiel must be carefully guarded with “non but Dutch
being stationed there”.
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Court yard of Fort Hammenhiel |
Rebuilding the fort in 1680, the
Dutch preserved the Portuguese masonry pattern inclusive of the octagonal
shape. They also did nothing to correct the Fort’s weak point, the water tank
and the insecure fresh water supply were once again the falling factors of the
new occupiers. In 1795 the Hammenhiel fort fell into the hands of the British.
The British, retaining the name, is said to have used the Fort to quarantine
arriving mariners.
After independence the fort was
used for various purposes. Used as a high security prison by the state, a
revolutionary and his ideologies were once imprisoned in the walls of
Hammenhiel. Following the failed insurrection of 1970, rebel leader Rohana Wijeweera
and 12 others were detained in the fort located far off in the Northern
Peninsula of Jaffna. It was also later used to house other prisoners of the
abortive 1971 JVP insurrection. Those detained included Upatissa Gamanayake,
Lionel Bopage, Podi Athula (Victor Ivan), Loku Athula (N. Jayasinghe), Prof.
Jayadeva Uyangoda and Mahinda Wijesekara.
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| A cell at Hammenhiel |
Today inscriptions made by these
political prisoners remain. Once such inscription said to have been made by
none other than Rohana Wijeweera addresses a commissioner about individual and
private property, while in another cell a prisoner writes an inscription
addressed to Fort Hammenhiel saying ‘Beloved Hammenhiel, for the last time’. It
was used thereafter by the Sri Lanka Navy as a correctional facility and visitors
were not allowed on the island during the war time in Sri Lanka.
However the fort has now been
restored and converted to a boutique hotel run by the Sri Lanka Navy. A five
minute boat transfer by the Navy will bring you to the fort. Perhaps unlike any
other hotel, Hammenhiel has watch towers, cells, soldiers in battle dress,
bugle calls, walls made of varying corals, court yards, and flag masts.
Equipped with modern facilities, it is a unique travel experience where one can
experience life in an ancient Dutch fort surrounded by choppy waters of the
Indian Ocean.
© 2014 Maneshka Borham
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