Odysseys of George

Well, it was all planned months before. The MUW ( Malaysian Underwater) decided to have its yearly official dive trip.

The day arrived and we gathered, all rushing to leave the office quickly as we had to reach Mersing by 11.30pm. Our destination , Aur Islands, the southern most islands on the our east coast.

We reached Mersing relatively early and was divided to two groups. Each group had to be taken by a small boat from the Mersing jetty to the boat that was anchored at the mouth of the river as the sea level were too low for the boats to come into the jetty area. It was 0030hours and we were hoping our to the bigger boat with the waves getting stronger. The boat ride there was ok for me as I slept off despite the swells of the sea. We reached Pantai Sebukang, Aur Island at 4am and the boat had difficulty docking as the sea level was low and the waves were strong. My boat managed to dock and we had to quickly climb the wooden ladder onto the jetty leaving our heavier luggage behind. The other group had to anchor out in the sea for another 3 hours before being able to dock at the jetty, which by then I had my sleep! The rest I will let the pictures do the talking.

A little about Aur Island.
Pulau Aur is located around around 70 kilometers off the coast of Mersing, south of Tioman Island. The five kilometer long island is blessed with larger, pristine coral formations due to its greater distance from the mainland. It is also often visited by some big pelagics such as mantas and whale sharks. There are several surrounding islands and the deep water channels between them attract all manner of marine life. (from AsiaDive)

Aur was once a war hub. In 1803, whilst the Napoleonic War was raging in Europe, a sea battle was brewing in the South China Sea. The Emperor of France and his advisors decided that it was time to infiltrate and dislodge the British from their trade stronghold with the Chinese. With this, France sent a fleet of 5 warships under the command of Admiral Linois to Pulau Aur. By early January 1804, Admiral Linois’ fleet had safely parked themselves at Aur. Admiral Linois laid in wait for the fleet from China to arrive in hope of a surprise attack which would put the French in a favourable position to confiscate the lucrative cargo. When the China-British fleet sailed into Aur on February 14th, Admiral Linois was himself taken by surprise by the three ‘warships’ accompanying the fleet. Uncertain of the strength of the British warships, the Admiral went ahead with couple of disastrous attacks and eventually retreated to Batavia (Jakarta) in defeat. Captain Nathaniel Dance sailed back to England and was showered with rewards especially from the insurers of the fleet and rightly so as the cargoes had at that time an estimated value of 8 million pounds! Emperor Bonaparte suffered an embarrassing defeat and just to add salt to his wound, it was his British sources that first broke the news to him. ( Excerpts from JourneyMalaysia)

Enjoy!

PS: if cannot view the pictures, please let me know.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 7:49 pm and is filed under Diving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.