Fort Ostenburg at Trincomalee
A view of Fort Frederick
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Legend has it that King Rajasinghe II who ruled this country for 52 years
(1635-1687) built a fort in Trincomalee.
There was the general belief that Fort Frederick was originally built by
King Rajasinghe. King Rajasinghe wanted to build a fort in Trincomalee with
a view to driving away the menacing Portuguese. But by that time the Portuguese
had already built a small fort at the hillock where the present Fort Frederick
now stands.
King Rajasinghe wanted to get rid of the Portuguese at any cost and later
was compelled to seek the assistance of the Dutch to expel the Portuguese.
A Diagram of Fort Ostenburg in Trincomalee from "Illustrations and
views of Dutch Ceylon, 1602-1796" by Rajpal Kumar De Silva, Willemina G.
M. Beumer
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The Portuguese built a fort in Trincomalee in 1623 while King Senarath
was ruling the country from Kandy. The Dutch made a treaty with the King
as far back as 1612 and were allowed to build a fort at Koddiyar (Mutur),
but the Portuguese who were in command of Trincomalee destroyed the partly
built fort.
It was thereafter that in 1623, the Portuguese built a fort in Trincomalee
which was earlier known as Fort Trinkenemalle. A Dutch officer in a letter
to Governor General Anthonio Van Diemon dated 31st December, 1638 has mentioned
that Trincomalee is a fort build rather strongly of hard stones from an old
pagoda round the hillock. On each side there is a sandy and rocky bay and
it is like a peninsula.
King Rajasinghe was most anxious to drive out the foreigners and while
he hated the Portuguese he did not have any love for the Dutch too. King
Rajasinghe's predecessors had sought the assistance of the Dutch to expel
the Portuguese, but King Rajasinghe wanted to do it without the assistance
of another European nation and he wanted to build a fort in Trincomalee to
attack the Portuguese holed up in Fort Trincomalee.
The Portuguese were finally expelled from the country in 1658.
An Archaeological Department officer, a few years back visited Fort Ostenburg
located within the Naval Dockyard and identified it as the Fort originally
built by King Rajasinghe. It appears that while King Rajasinghe was building
a fort on the Ostenburg hill the Dutch had approached him and offered their
service to the King to expel the Portuguese.
At that period every European nation was trying to build up a commercial
monopoly in this country. King Rajasinghe gave up the construction of the
fort and it was left uncompleted.
The architecture of Fort Ostenburg appears to be more Asian in comparison
to the architecture of the Kandyan era. It appears that King Rajasinghe never
used this fort though later the Dutch made use of it to save their souls
from the invading British. Fort Ostenburg built on the peak of Ostenburg
ridge is now hidden among a heavy undergrowth and is unknown. Except for
some of the elders who had served under the navy now among the present generation
have heard of this fort.
The Dutch managed to expel the Portuguese assisted by the Sinhala army,
but the Dutch proved to be no better than the Portuguese. For the Sinhalese
it was falling out of the frying pan to the fire.
The Dutch who felt secure having expelled the Portuguese demolished the
Trincomalee Fort. It should be noted that Fort Frederick which was then known
as Fort Trincomalee by the Portuguese was much smaller in size before the
Dutch expanded it to the present size and named it Pagoda Hill. It was the
British who named it after Frederick Augustus Duke of York and Albany, second
son of King George III.
The Trincomalee Fort which was captured by the Dutch in 1640 from the Portuguese
was dismantled on 20th April that year as they felt well secured. But in
1658 when rumours of French and British expansion in the East reached here
the Dutch who were controlling the coastal areas re-fortified both the Trincomalee
Fort and the Koddiyar Fort.In 1671, the French arrived in Trincomalee. Apart
from improvements to Fort Trincomalee (present Fort Frederick) and provision
for five bastions the Dutch also restored Fort Ostenburg (then known as Osnaburg)
to commend the inner anchorage.
The British who were then at war with Holland and France were making plans
to capture Trincomalee with the object of expanding the British East India
Company's territory and command of the Eastern World.On January 5, 1782 British
troops landed at Back Bay and captured Fort Trincomalee by surprise.
Most men of the dutch garrison bolted to Fort Ostenburg. Three days later
Admiral Edward Hughes called the Dutch to surrender and he sent the summons
through his Chief Engineer Major Gells who carried out an excellent reconnaissance
and later suggested that another summons to surrender might be sent so that
he could have another 'look see'.
The British then attacked Fort Ostenburg, but managed to capture a hill
300 yards from the fort. The next day the British entered through the lower
fort loosing one officer and 20 men while two officers and 40 men were wounded.
The British captured the fort with nine officers and 350 men - 60 Chinese
and Malays under captivity. They also captured 62 guns from the two forts.
Fort Ostenburg has not been of much importance as Fort Frederick from where
the Europeans commanded the entire East. Fort Ostenburg had been mostly used
as a residence for the commanding officers of the garrison prior to take
over by the British who completely ignored it after the country was ceded
to Great Britain in 1802. It is said that the Dutch had underground quarters
for the officers who commanded Trincomalee.
The British finally captured Trincomalee on August 26, 1795 and in 1800
there were 50 guns in Fort Ostenburg. It appears that both the Dutch and
British had made good use of the fort which was originally built by King
Rajasinghe, but not mentioned that fact in any of the annuls. A Sinhala verse
described the event thus.
Male, male thembiliya venna pol male
Rale, rale muhuden damana diya rale
Bale, bale Rasing Deviyange bale
Gale Kotuva bendai Tirikuna Male
The location where Fort Ostenburg stands was later used by the British
Admiralty as a wireless station during the Second World War.
by K.D. Jayasekara
Sunday Observer
, 22 November 2009
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Created : January 3, 2010
Updated :
January 3, 2010
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