The Sounds of Sur

SUR is a coastal town in the Sultanate of Oman. There is nothing spectacular to mark the entry into the harbour, Sur City but, sailors for thousands of years have known of its reputation as a good port, to weather a storm. Between the mainland and the village of Ayeja, is the channel that has for centuries been a safe anchor for fishing and cargo vessels. All along this deep sound, no both sides, are the famous dhow building yards of Oman. Many changes have taken place in Sur and the country in general, but the seafaring traditions of Sur are as strong as they were when Marco Polo visited the coast.

Sur's fame as a centre for shipbuilding goes back centuries and is closely linked with the maritime heritage of Oman. The earliest residents of Sur looked to the sea for subsistence. The hinterland was arable, but water for irrigation was hard to come by. For these people, a visit to the Malabar coast was far more rewarding and satisfying. Each year after the monsoon winds had spent their force, they sailed across the ocean to barter dates, frankincense and dried fish in exchange for rice, lentils and condiments. The more enterprising sailed on to Sri Lanka and then beyond, through the Strait of Malacca to China. People living in the coastal areas around Tirur and Ponani still recall the visit of the Omani vessels. "The Omani has come; the Omani has come" was a familiar piece of bazaar news.

Sur has had links with the Malabar coast from ancient times. Marco Polo recorded that the boats built at Sur were stitched together with twine from the coconut. The Arabic word for rope is Kayar. The teak wood for the boats came from the slopes of the Western Ghats; in fact from Sur, the teak logs were re-exported to several other countries as well. One type of boat in Oman is called the machuwa, just like it is in parts of Mattanchery. The links exist to this day; not as strong as they used to be, but with a type of mutual feeling that speaks volumes for the glorious days.

Today, Sur presents a different picture. There are no signs of the old triangular lateen sails or the heavy wooden rudder. These have been replaced by diesel engines and solid brass propellers. The boat building industry in Sur is subdued, but it survives thanks to the attempts of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. Take a drive to the waterside and one can still hear the sounds of the old hammer driving in the long iron nails, and the whine of the electric drill; one can also hear the drone of the out board motors that have come to stay.

Sur is symbolic of places that have had to adjust to change. With the advent of oil revenues in the late Sixties, Oman has changed from a near tribal society to a modern nation state. There was a premium on time; the days of waiting for the winds to abate to set sail wereover. Change was imminent; seas faring traditions are still strong but today the coastal fishermen bring in the catch using fibreglass boats powered with outboard motors or venture out in deep sea trawlers with powerful engines and refrigeration facilities. Diesel engines and outboard motors are more in tune with the Japanese car that the fisherman owns and drives.

In 1978, the government of the Sultanate of Oman introduced the Fisherman's Encouragement Fund. The objective was to encourage people to preserve their ancient traditions and to bring back many young people who had moved from fishing to other vocations. Financial assistance was given to fishermen to purchase firbreglass boats and outboard motors. The older generations have found the changes a trifle hard to take, but the young have nothing to grumble about. The loans that were given were good for the fishermen but not so good for the shipbuilders. Few fishermen have the patience to order a fishing boat and then wait for four to six months for their new boat; it is far simpler to shop around for the fibreglass boat and get on with business.

In the last century and until four decades ago Sur was famous for boats called the boums, the baghalas, the ganhja, the battil and the dhows. Not all of these are made today. On the waterfront, under construction are vessels that will be used for harbour cruises as well as for fishing. Cargo vessels of 300 to 600 tonnes will perhaps never be built again. Supervision on the spot are reticent about the order book and the work on hand; it is certainly not what it used to be. The last luxury yacht to be built was made for Dr. Omar Zawawi. The shell was built in Sur and later the vessel was taken to European ports for completion. "Nobody builds boats like that anymore" says a man who was associated with the building of the Zawawi Yacht. People of Sur are not content to let history forget their excellence in the area of shipbuilding. The shipwrights have joined together with the local authorities to buy back a handsome ganhia that was build on those very shores. This vessel had ferried cargo for decades and had then been sold to traders from Yemen and later to a trader in Dubai. Today the people of Sur have bought the vessel back paying a large amount of money. Craftsmen are now repairing and refurbishing the vessel. The vessel will now remain on the waterfront at Sur. As the supervisor on the site said, "Our grandchildren will see this and understand how their forefathers worked to built these vessels. It is the last of these generation of vessels; if we had got it there would be nothing to show for the work done in this town." Shipbuilders of Sur have never used drawings or computer aided design to do their work. The human eye has been the only instrument that has been in use for everything from design to final alignment. Sur's waterside memorabilia will be an added bonus for tourists who come to Sur.

The links that Sur had with West Coast of India still continue. The wood for the vessels still comes from Malabar and so do most of the workers. On the waterfront at Sur are workers who come from Vypeen, Cochin. Badagara and other places on the West Coast. Little has changed in the manner in which the boats were built. Boats tied with coir or the sewn ships are no longer made. These have been replaced with grant nails; each nail is coated with fish oil and covered with a twirl of cotton before being hammered into the wood. Electric drills and saws are used, but all the old tools are still around. Craftsmen from Malabar still add the decorative touches on the bow; a type of bas relief work now done with a drill like machine and finished with the hand.

There are some workers at Sur who hail from Zanzibar, on the African coast. Oman has had close trading links with Zanzibar and centuries ago ousted the Portuguese from here. For a time, Sur was famous as a transit point for flaves who were brought from the east coast of Africa and then sold into bondage.

The trading visits to Malabar were followed by closer ties and many marriages were made after the goods changed hands. Many of the wives never saw Oman and were content to wait for the annual visit of their spouses. Many were also unconcerned about the status of the groom and that he may have a wife back home. It was a matter of social status for the family, to receive an offer of marriage, from a man who had sailed across the sea; everything else was prefunctory.

Sur enjoyed a brief spell of glory ten years ago when Tim Severin chose the site to build his sewn boat for the expedition to China. This stitched dhow re-traced the journey of Omani mariners by sailing from Muscat to China. The first leg of the voyage brought Severin's vessel, the sohar to Beypore. Today, this vessel is a showpiece and rests in the middle of one of the traffic islands in Muscat.

What future is there for a place like Sur which has seen such a glorious past? As a town Sur has metamorphosed from a small village into a modern place with every conceivable amenity. On the waterfront, change is permanent; the old dhows will have to compete with the outboard and the fibreglass, but the traditions can still be preserved by teaching youngsters to build actual models of the boum, the baghala and the ganjha. There is no dearth of place in Sur to race these models and no better way to communicate a glorious heritage.

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