The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, known in colonial Burma as the
'Fabulous Flotilla', was the largest privately-owned fleet of ships
in the world. It was an entirely Scottish enterprise with nearly
all its investors, management and ship's officers drawn from
Scotland. Over 1,200 ships were ordered mainly from Clyde yards and
each year carried the majority of the population of Burma on its
river network without loss of life. The paddle steamers were
amongst the largest in the world, innovative in design and
technology, and very beautiful. The flotilla began as a naval task
force in the 1820s, was commandeered in five wars, and was to end
its life with the British evacuation of Burma in 1942, the greatest
evacuation in British military history. Fascinating personalities
emerge from Strachan's descriptions of Irrawaddy commanders and the
flotilla's key players. The ships evolved over a hundred years into
riverine versions of ocean liners with plush cabins, restaurants,
shops and even post offices on board. The largest class of ships
carried 5,000 passengers including royalty, celebrities of the day
and famous writers like Somerset Maugham along with early tourists
and big game hunters. In the second part of the book, the author
who himself has spent much of his life running ships on the rivers
of Burma, takes us on a journey 1,000 miles upriver to explore the
different regions of the country often highlighting Scottish
connections. The river is the thread through which Burma's often
tragic history, yet rich and glorious Buddhist culture, flows and
only on a river journey can the country be understood. Renamed
Myanmar in 1997, Burma is Scotland's 'lost colony' and the Scottish
connection is little remembered today due to Burma's half a century
of post-war isolation. In its 1920s heyday Burma had the highest
concentration of Scots anywhere in the world, outside of Scotland,
with the exception of Canada. Scots were everywhere in Burma,
running everything, and even their Burmese servants spoke in
'broad' Scots. With the 'opening up' of Burma in the early 21st
century the Irrawaddy watershed, where about 50 million people live
in a primitive rural economy, is under threat. Deforestation on a
vast scale has resulted in the silting up of once navigable
channels. China, with its 'belt and road' system that is a
euphemism to a recolonisation of the country, plans to build one of
the world's largest dams in the river's headwaters that would
devastate the country's agriculture and fisheries. The Fabulous
Flotilla provides a revealing record of this remarkable era in
Burma's history and past Scottish endeavour - a jewel of a story
that may soon be lost.
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