3-052-574 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Massoolah boats, Madras, 1880. 'The peculiar kind of shore-boat, which is employed for the landing of passengers and merchandise from the ships lying outside the forbidding line of surf, which breaks with a mighty wave, rising several feet in height, at a considerable distance from the beach, has often caught the notice of travellers on their arrival at the chief seaport and capital city of the Coromandel coast. These "massoolah" boats are not less peculiar to the place than the fishing-rafts or "catamarans"...and the use of out-rigged pieces of timber fixed alongside, to steady the position of the little vessel, and to prevent its capsizing in a furious sea, may here be observed to the best advantage. Madras, however, by the recent construction of a pier and the commencement of a breakwater, is in the way to be converted into a tolerably safe artificial harbour, which will greatly benefit the trade of Southern India. Though now of secondary political and commercial importance compared with Bombay and Calcutta, this place is of great historical interest with reference to the first foundation of British Indian dominion and the contest subsequently waged between the English and the French to dispute the possession of that country'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.