by Amal Jayasinghe
COLOMBO (AFP) - Two women crew were hurt as their 17th century replica ship was crippled in stormy seas off Sri Lanka while trying to re-enact a 400-year-old spice route expedition, the organisers said Saturday. Christine Henschien and Heidy Bontjer, both Dutch nationals, were injured when they violently fell on the deck of the Duyfken as it was buffeted by extraordinarily strong winds, project director Graeme Cocks said. "We will have to take both of them out of the ship when it reaches Sri Lanka on Monday or so," said Cocks who has moved to Sri Lanka’s southern port town of Galle to coordinate land-based operations of the expedition. He said the 24-metre Duyfken was now expected to reach Galle, 72 miles (112 kilometres) south of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, on Monday, a day later than previously scheduled because of the damage to the ship’s sails. "The crew tried to repair the sails and put them up yesterday only to have it blown to shreds," Cocks told AFP by telephone from Galle. "They don’t have any top sails so they are travelling at half their speed." The ship was on Saturday at a location about 300 kilometres away from the port of Galle, a key stop during the spice trade centuries ago. Cocks said the two injured crewmembers were in their bunks and unable to work immediately.

"They have hurt their backs and confined to the bunks and the rolling of the shop is making it difficult for them," Cocks said, "It is quite a challenging time for the crew."

Henschien had joined the ship in Jakarta while Bontjer was in the original team that set sail from Sydney on May 5. Ship’s Master Glenn R. Williams posted his last log on their website on Monday when he said they were experiencing heavy rains and they had plenty of wind from the wrong direction. Cocks said many weather forecasts had gone terribly wrong. They were experiencing head winds when what they actually expected was winds behind them to push them to the Galle Port in southern Sri Lanka. The spice route port of Galle is the third call for the Duyfken on its way to re-enact a journey of 400 years ago and take them to Texel, near Amsterdam in March 2002 after covering 18,200 nautical miles. Sri Lanka had been a key port in a spice trade and the first Dutch ship to arrive in the island had been in May 1602. The Dutch captured the port of Galle, 72 miles (112 kilometres south of the present capital Colombo, and ruled the island till the British drove them out between 1795 and 1796. Cocks who is the chief executive of the Duyfken Foundation said he expected Sri Lanka to attract attention as a result of the ship’s visit to Galle. "The foundation hopes that the ship’s visit to Galle will also highlight the city’s historical attractions and help promote tourist visits to Sri Lanka," he said. The trade winds voyage marks the 400th anniversary of the world’s first multinational trading company, the United East India Company (VOC), which pioneered the Dutch spice trade. The Duyfken is also the first recorded ship to visit Australia having sailed from Banda to the Pennefather river in Queensland in 1606. On the re-enactment, the Duyfken began its spice route journey from Jakarta after setting out from Sydney.

From Sri Lanka, it is expected to set sail for Port Louis, Cape Town, St. Helena Island, Ascension, Flores, the Azores and Texel, the Netherlands. Later the ship is to return to Freemantle, Western Australia where it was built to go on permanent display from about 2003. The crew comprises 16 Australian, Dutch New Zealand, English and American adventurers. The problems faced by the Duyfken were indicated in captain’s last log on Monday. There was plenty of rain and wind from the wrong directions. "That causes the day’s run to look a bit pathetic even though we have actually sailed quite a long way," he said. "Our course on the chart looks like a mouse that has dragged its tail across after having dipped it in ink, a drunken mouse that is."