MYSTERY OF KRAKATAU (PART III - END)

HISTORY OF CULTURE | MYSTERY OF KRAKATAU (PART III - END) | Mud Rain "On August 29 we were back in the Indian Ocean. More to the north, the less visible due to the great catastrophe. Later in the Valley and some other places we meet with the people who heard the explosions and the roar of Krakatoa. The odd thing is that we who are in a place that is closest to Krakatoa, did not hear the bang-bang. " 

That is the story of a passenger ship that saw the havoc it from a distance. From the city itself there Betung Bay eyewitness survivors. According to him the first tidal wave that arrived on 27 August morning about half past seven, which lay down the harbor lights, coal warehouse, warehouse on the pier, and throwing Barouw ship from the east side of the dam past the breakwater to the Chinese village. Gudang Garam and Kampung Kang damaged along with several other villages on the coast washed away. Marie salt vessel overturned in the bay, but then can erect again. People also see the ship docked Loudon, then set sail again at seven o'clock. Sky aeneous such as copper, from the direction of Krakatoa seen flashes of fire, ash rain down incessantly, but the situation is calm at around eight. While the people who had fled to high ground when it was time to return to their homes to save what can still be taken, or to see the state. 

 Approximately ten o'clock suddenly heard a great explosion that makes people stare. A beam of light and lightning seen in the direction of Krakatoa. Immediately after the eruption began to dim day. Scattered pebbles of pumice began. By eleven o'clock it was dark as night, rain changed to rain ash mud. Furthermore, what is exactly going on, no one knows, because the survivors hid in the house residents and only heard the roar and rumble through the night caused by a hurricane that broke the twigs, subvert the woods, and throw mud on the windowpanes. The fugitives were not aware that the tide is already approaching pengungsiannya place as far as 50 m in the foothills. 

Just the next day people know how great the destruction that occurred. All terrain razed, no houses or trees that are still upright. There was only ash, mud, debris, wrecked ships, and human and animal corpses strewn everywhere. Barouw ship was out of sight again. Just then the ill-fated ship was found in Kuripan River valley, behind the bend of the valley at a distance of 3300 m from where berlabuhnya, and 2.600 m from Chinatown, where he dumped the first wave at half past seven. A number of boat ran aground on the edge of the valley, a marine beacon was found on the hillside cemetery. Barouw crew, first mate and interpreter engine Amt Stolk rimbanya gone unnoticed. The coast of Sumatra that terjilat most severe catastrophe Krakatau, which lies primarily dealing with the Sunda Strait. For example, the places on the shores of the Gulf of Watermelon. 

Sandwiched Two Hourses

A Dutch personal experience virulence eruption of Krakatoa and successfully defend his life is placed in a controleur Beneawang, the capital of Watermelon section, which is located in the Gulf of Watermelon, Lampung. PLC. Le Sueur, Dutch officials, reported to his superiors in a letter dated August 31, 1883 as follows: 

"On Sunday afternoon, before four o'clock, when I was reading on the back porch of my house, all of a sudden I heard some boom cannon-like eruption. I think that the resident who is scheduled to arrive tomorrow with an armed vessel government has accelerated the schedule of his visit. I soon gathered the heads of customs and local officials to the beach. But we do not see a ship at sea. I immediately returned to the house. " 

"Recently I got home, a messenger reported that the sea water began to rise and some villages on the coast was flooded. I immediately set out again to curb the situation among the people who started to panic and calling out the name of God. I told them to bring women and children to places which was situated higher. Then the water receded more quickly, but it started raining ash. " 

"Around four o'clock in the morning I was woken up by people who proclaim that on the horizon visible light reddish. I was worried ... " 

"At six in the morning, Monday, I went to the beach. Sea levels are much lower than normal. While the rock that is usually invisible, is now dry. Then I heard the thunder-to-back, so I'm afraid there are things more horrible that will happen to us ... " 

"When I got home I sent for Van Zuylen (my assistant) to write a draft letter to residents about what happened. Hours are shown at seven over, but the weather was so dark, so the lights still on. Van Zuylen strike then said: 'Excuse me sir, for a while I stopped writing it. I feel restless. '" 

"Just now he said it, all of a sudden we heard the noise. Men, women and children running, shouting, 'Flood! Flood! '. Van Zuylen and I went out and offered the men to take refuge in my house, because my house is located in a rather high and built on pilings. But soon the tide back into the sea so that it all calmed down ... " 

"The tranquility did not last long: After a while the sea water lapping and back again with a frightening roar. At home I was already there are about three hundred people displaced. I paced back and forth between them to calm them somewhat. Suddenly I heard the front porch collapsed and water immediately lunged into the house. I encourage them to move to the back porch. Recently I said it, suddenly the whole house collapsed mess and we are all caught by currents of water. " 

"After that I do not know what happened. I managed to reach a piece of board and float to follow the flow of water, until something caught my foot so I had to remove the board. After that I managed to reach some pieces of the roof. I'm holding tight until the water returns to the sea and my feet touched the ground. I use my jacket to protect the head from the rain the mud. " 

"In the distance I heard a voice asking for help from men, women and children, but I am powerless to help. I can not stand because of weakness, fear, and surprise, and anyway not seen anything since the dark. I heard the water came again with the strong. I can only pray for a moment we all ask saving lives while preparing to face death. Then I washed away by water, rotate, and thrown with tremendous force. I was sandwiched between two houses that float. I could not breathe anymore it seems. I thought that my death had reached. But suddenly the two houses were separated again. Then I got my banana stems that did not disconnect again ... " 

"With my banana stems that float for some time, how long exactly I do not know anymore. When the water receded, I sat alone, perhaps an hour I was there without moving. In the vicinity of my still dark and raining mud goes on. " 

Controlleur Shouting Please Ask

"Finally I heard human voices nearby. I called, got up and started hobbled with his eyes covered by mud while groping my way. All my clothes, except the flannel shirt, has tercabikkan from my body. I walked in a state of cold in the rain the mud, but did not find the people that I heard her voice it. " 

"I stepped on prickly bushes and my skin was torn by the thorny rattan, I'm more ups and downs than walking. Finally I hear someone say in the Lampung language: 'We're not far from the big river. "Sedapatnya I speed up my street, sweeping the mud from my eyes and hurried toward the noise. I met a Javanese, a Palembang, and some Javanese woman. " 

"Soon we see the light of torches from a distance. Without stop me shouting: 'Help! Help! My controller! "But it seems torchbearers not hear me. Several times we saw the light, but then disappeared in the darkness. When it should have been eight or nine o'clock in the morning, but still dark ... " 

"Finally there is also a torch bearer who came to get us. I told him who I was, then he took me through the woods and brambles through the mud to the Kampung Kasugihan, then forwarded to the Guarantee. It was eight o'clock when we got there. In this village I had just rested an hour when we heard the roar of water, so this place is still not safe. We fled back to the mountain. After two hours of walking we reach the village Umbrella located on the slopes of Mount Tanggamus. In this place there which gave me a glove, so I dressed a little inappropriate. " 

"Lucky that I got a good reception from the village chief and his people, so every day I could eat rice with chicken dish. On Tuesday I sent people to investigate anyone who is still alive from the places on the beach. The result is very sad. Almost all Beneawang destroyed. I estimate casualties in this area there are about a thousand people. Many villages disappeared. In many villages there was a famine. "Please send some clothes, because I do not have anything else, also shoes and slippers." 

Pumice Stone Rain Burning And Ash Hot 

According to official reports, in Beneawang about 250 people died, including nearly all local traditional leaders had gathered to welcome the arrival of the Resident. Includes Van Zulyen, assistant clerk griffier Le Sueur, the only Dutch person who died. The villages in the west and east of the Gulf of Watermelon experience total or partial destruction; in Tanjungan and in Tanjung Beringin located nearby, 327 people declared missing, the adjacent Betung, 244 people. 

Rather than on the coast of Bay of Lampung, we follow the story more pathetic Beyerink controller, because he personally lost a family member in the catastrophe. "On Sunday afternoon, August 26, our district is overwritten rain of ash and pumice stones are burning. People fled in panic mood. Ash fall was so hot, so that almost everyone suffered burns on face, hands, and feet. Among the population of which amounts to approximately three thousand people who fled with me to a much higher, at least one thousand people who died of burns. One of my child also died. We were forced to bury the ashes. " 

Between nine and ten o'clock the night the water began to inundate the home controller. This is a strong impetus for Beyerink to take his family consisting of his wife and two small children memgungsi to Balak village on the slopes of Mount Bannerman Rajabasa. Last night, the night rain and gray gravel, until eleven o'clock Sunday heavy rain, morning between nine and ten o'clock falling pieces of pumice, some of the head. The blasts are heard continuously since Sunday and since Monday the smell of sulfur. 

Greatest eruption came thundering around ten, followed immediately by total darkness. Soon the hot ash began to fall, that it's very painful on the skin. It lasted about a quarter of an hour, maybe longer, accompanied by choking sulfur vapor. After it rained mud, attached to the body like glue, but more than mending hot ash that resulted in burns. Alternating mud and ash fell all night long, maybe until Tuesday morning. 

For five days Beyerink with his family suffered under a simple shelter, surrounded by a large number of people who come to escape to that place. They all suffered greatly, especially by the burns are not treated. The smallest child Beyerink family eventually died of his injuries and the woeful state. 

Eventually they were released by the ship barges Kedirie that on Saturday morning, August 31, anchored in the Gulf Kalianda. Skippers of the boats and some of his men conduct a review into the ground. They heard that the controller and his family fled in Bannerman Balak. They rushed to pick him up. With the help of litter that poor families can finally be brought to the beach and the day was also Kedirie heading to Jakarta. 

Caught in the Tree

Ships barges Kedirie save a number of victims, including a grandfather who was about sixty years old, named Kimas Gemilang, which is then treated in public hospitals in Jakarta. In an interview with the Dutch-language daily he recounts his experience as follows: 

"On Monday morning, about six o'clock, I headed to the beach, not far from my home in Than. I saw the sea surface is very high, much higher than the day-to-day, but I do not see the waves or something else suspicious. About ten minutes later, I saw the water rolling from a distance, it is black and resembles the high mountains. I want to run away, but had not trigger because the water has reached me, so I dragged. 

Mujurnya, I am stuck on a large tree trunk. I climbed the tree to the top. Not long after the water disappeared as fast as the arrival earlier. After about five minutes the tide had come back. I still sit in a tree, not daring to go down. After about an hour past high tide did not come back again, then I slowly sank to the bottom. But I was unable to walk because of injuries from earlier waves. So I sat down and resting under a tree rescue a few days and several nights in a state between the conscious and not, like a stupefied, not knowing what was going on around me. 

Of course for a few days that I do not eat and drink until one morning, I already do not know what day, there is a Chinese came up to me, then lifted me into the boat. In the midst of our sea helped by a steamer that brought me here. " 

Thus the story of several witnesses who had personally Krakatoa catastrophe. Observers at that time after collecting the data, concluded that the eruption of Krakatoa in August of 1883 is not accompanied or preceded by a strong earthquake. In some places it felt a mild shock. 

Month And The Sun Colorful 

Requesting the casualties and most severe damage is high tide that swept the coasts bordering the Sunda Strait and the northern island of Java. Only a small proportion of victims caused by hot ashes were hot clouds and toxic gas was recorded. From these reports it turns out that the high tide occurred three times, first on Sunday at 18:00, on Monday around 06.30 and at 10.30. The last wave is the largest, which causes the most damage. Destruction Bay Betung and Caringin mainly caused by the wave of the latter. 

After active for 121 days since May and the peak explosion August 28, it finally all became quiet again. Krakatoa vanished as swallowed by the earth; almost all parts of the northern island disappeared. Who lives just 813 yards along the rocks. Volcanoes Danan and deeds are also magical, and the place was formed a giant caldera 7.4 km in diameter. 

Fine ash ejected into space blown westward by the wind and travel the world with a speed of 121 km per hour. After six weeks, in the month of October 1883 a belt of fine dust and ashes spread around the earth. Just two days after the eruption of fine ash that has been covering the continent of Africa and fifteen days later has been circling the earth, a husband's dance around the equatorial haze that spreads little by little. On November 30, the fog was reached Iceland. The fog was caused various optical effects, including twilight bright morning, the sun and moon color, and appearance of the corona. In many places in the world seen the sun or moon, pink, green, blue. Six months after the eruption of Krakatoa, the people of Missouri in the United States saw the sun yellow with a green sky background. 

A popular Dutch magazine gave the title essay on the eruption of Krakatoa "More powerful than the atomic bomb." The explosion of the atomic bomb is nothing compared to the eruption of Krakatoa. The first atomic bomb was detonated as an experiment near Los Alamos on June 16, 1945 emit energy for 0.019 megatons, while the Krakatoa explosion was estimated at 410 megatons! 

Strength of the eruption was equivalent to 21,428 atomic bombs. While fatalities are grabbed by the tidal wave was the highest ever recorded to this day. This is not counting the indirect victims who died by disease and famine that followed.

THE END