Construction of the Colombo Breakwater.
Colombo Harbour completed 1885 – Construction of South-West Breakwater, Colombo Harbour, 1875-1885
The creation of an artificial harbour to increase the shipping capacity of Ceylon was first suggested by the Earl of Carnarvon in 1866. At this time the favoured location was Galle at the extreme south of the island, but in 1870 the Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson, reported in favour of Colombo (whose commercial status was rapidly growing as a result both of the completion of the Suez Canal and of the Colombo-Kandy Railway) and Robert Townsend, the engineer responsible for Plymouth Breakwater, was sent out to make a feasibility study. He too was impressed by Colombo’s natural advantages over Galle and advised the construction of a breakwater across the harbour mouth. In 1872 the great harbour engineer Sir John Coode drew up plans for a breakwater running north from Customs House Point at the southern entrance and enclosing 500 acres of sheltered moorings. This plan was accepted in 1873, with land reclamation for a coal depot and the dredging of shallow portions of the harbour also included in the project.
John Kyle was appointed Resident Executive Engineer and arrived in May 1873 to organise such necessary preliminaries as the opening of a quarry at Mahara (11 miles from Colombo), the formation of a blockyard at Galle Buck near the works, and the construction of a railway to transport stone from one site to the other. The main body of engineering staff arrived in Ceylon in June 1874. The blockyard site was levelled, workshops and cranes installed, and in October the first trainload of rubble was delivered to Colombo. 300 convicts were used for loading the trains and over the period of construction never less than 100 tons per day (with a record of 600 tons) were shifted. By December 1882 the commercial advantages of a sheltered anchorage were becoming evident, and in the June of that year the P and O Royal Mail steamships abandoned their base at Galle in favour of Colombo. Between 1883 and 1889 the value of shipping passing through Colombo increased by 60% and steady growth continued throughout the century. The breakwater, 4212 feet long, was completed in April 1885 at a cost of £705,207.
In 1891, Sir John Coode was asked to design a further breakwater but his death in 1892 prevented him working on the project. The work was therefore entrusted to Sir William Matthews who erected two further breakwaters, at the North-East and North-West corners of the harbour, so that by the turn of the century Colombo was able to provide 640 acres of enclosed anchorage, impervious to the effects of either the SW or NE monsoons.
Purchased by the Royal Colonial Society in May 1892.
Access and Use
Text – Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library