At the moment I’m reading The Honourable Company by John Keay. It is a recent book about the history of the East India Company and is very enjoyable (though Mirinda would undoubtedly dispute this). Today I read about the strange selection of a site for a fort and trading post on the east coast of India.
The spot had nothing going for it. An awful spot for ships to land and offload, the worlds worst undertow, a reef running parallel with the beach, a massive sandbank that appeared without warning, far too close to the Portuguese trading post, etc, etc…the list goes on. From the description in the book, it could be used as an example of the least appropriate spot to build any sort of anything.
However, and against the wishes of the East India Company directors, it WAS built and so, the tiny village of Madraspatnam became Madras. In 1996, the Indian government renamed it Chennai, as it did with lots of, what they considered, English names. However, there is no definite origin known for Madraspatnam although there is some conjecture that it was derived from the Portuguese Madre de Deus. And they were there before the English, after all.
But, meanwhile back in the 17th century, trade flourished – there was a lot of top quality cotton to be had – but many ships were destroyed or simply abandoned because of the vagaries of the coastline. There’s also a terrible tale of a long-boat that overturned, drowning all but four men and a sheep who managed to shelter in a small air pocket while up to their necks in water.
Two of them drowned trying to get to shore (about 180 yards away) but two survived after running naked along the beach, looking for shelter, their skins blistering with sunburn. A friendly Dutchman gave them a hat and a pair of shoes along the way. Nothing further was said about the sheep but I somehow think it drowned as well. Unless it was one of those underwater sheep from Porlock.
Anyway, none of this explains the rather odd choice of location. According to Keay, it was because Francis Day, an agent of the East India Company, had a girlfriend in the nearby village of San Thomé and so decided it was the perfect spot for him to set up shop. Can there be any greater display of love? Or, more likely, lust? Brilliant.
Whatever the reason, Madras/Chennai is now the fifth most populous city in India and is the country’s second largest exporter of software and IT services, neither of which requires sea travel!
