GOTCHA
Phl held Scarborough nonstop for 300 years
By Jarius Bondoc
“Putting out the fire while holding firewood,” a Chinese proverb goes. China’s communist rulers broadcast peaceful economic rise, yet bash the very laws on global amity. In Scarborough Shoal they use the might of arms instead of arbitration.
Prof. Jay L. Batongbacal, PhD, recently lectured on the solidity of the Philippine claim. As director of the University of the Philippines-Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, he is a leading researcher on the matter. Following is the second of a three-part condensation of his “Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal): Less Known Facts vs. Published Fiction”:
* * *
In law, when a disputant seeks third-party resolution, he must rely on the strength of his own claim, not the weakness of the other’s. With China’s fiction as backdrop, the solidity of the Philippine claim shines in its continuous exercise of jurisdiction over Bajo de Masinloc.
As exhibited by Justice Antonio T. Carpio, ancient Chinese maps detail only a few large islands of Luzon, like May-i (Mindoro). There is no indication of Huangyan Island or the very Chinese term “Huangyan.” In contrast are European maps of the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as regional geographic knowledge spread in the 17th century. Bajo de Masinloc first appeared as an unnamed reef associated with Luzon, under the notation “Punto de Mandato (Point of Mandate).”
Early 18th century maps indicated three distinct reefs west of Luzon. The 1734 Murillo Velarde map of the Philippine archipelago named them in Tagalog: Galit, Panacot, and Lumbay. All triangular, the reefs were on approaches to Manila, differently oriented north to south. Later maps reflected similar features, with varied distances to the coast. They acquired other names: Bajo de Bolinao, Bajo de Masinloc, and Bajo de Miravela, respectively. In some maps Bajo de Masinloc was also called Maroona or South Maroona. The multiple locations and different names arose from mapmaking inaccuracies at the time, before the invention of the shipboard chronometer.
Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
The imprecise position of the three reefs would soon be resolved — with the grounding of a British sailing ship HMS Scarborough, chartered by the East India Company to transport tea between China and British East Indies. On Sept. 12, 1748, the ship ran aground on a reef off Luzon. The captain’s log described the accident:
“At daylight, the rocks appeared frightful, though it pleased God the ship was on the sea side of the shoal, which is at least 2 leagues over and 8 long. On the east side of the shoal, the rocks are almost as high as those of Sicily, and a terrible sea breaks over them; on the west side, they are no bigger than a boat. They seemed to lie about North-Northwest and South-Southeast. I think the Scarborough was near their north end, seeing the water blue to the northward of them, and rocks were seen Southeast by South 3 leagues from the ship.”
The grounding was a big cartographic event, as maps published thereafter were annotated with it. The reef was thought to be different from Panacot, Galit, or Lumbay, although there later was debate if it was on Panacot or South Maroona. Some maps portrayed it as a fourth feature, designated as “Scarborough Shoal.” Eventually it was concluded to be Panacot or Bajo de Masinloc (or South Maroona or Marsingola, as some British maps called it).
More decades passed before debates fixed the coordinates of Scarborough Shoal. In May 1792 the Malaspina Expedition of the South China Sea, a major scientific undertaking of the time, ascertained the atoll’s exact position. The expedition also verified that the other two reefs shown in previous maps did not actually exist, and all such markings could only have referred to the same shoal. An extract translated from the expedition’s journal, dated May 4-6, 1792, stated:
“…[U]nder this supposition it will be necessary to exclude from the map of Mr Dalrymple the shoal with that name which is located at the distance of 57 leagues from land, and to establish as the only and true Scarborough another one located in the same latitude, but nearer to it... The exact position of this reef is very important because many vessels, national and foreign, have perished in it.”
With the position of Bajo de Masinloc and the absence of the two other reefs confirmed, General Alava’s Spanish naval squadron based in Cavite sent the frigate Santa Lucia, led by Capitan Francisco Riquelme to carry out the first detailed Spanish survey of the shoal, year 1800. Santa Lucia was among the first steam vessels Spain dispatched to the islands to suppress the Sultan of Sulu and Moro pirate-slavers.
The summary of Capitan Riquelme’s findings became a fixture in the Dorroteo del Archipielago Filipino, the Spanish guide for mariners. An 1879 translation of the Dorroteo stated:
“This low-lying reef, per Riquelme, extends more than 8-2/3 miles from North to South, and 9-1/2 miles from East to West from one end to the middle part, but from there narrowing until it ends in a tip. It is surrounded by horrible dangers that may appear without warning or other markings to serve notice of their proximity. Some rocks can be seen slightly above water only by close observation on a clear day, and only by having careful look-outs can one see the reef at a distance of 7 miles.”
On Mar. 13-18, 1866, Master & Commander Edward Wilds held a more detailed survey aboard the steam sloop HMS Swallow. A summary of his findings also appeared in the Dorroteo:
“Recently in March 1866, it was explored by Lieutenant Wilds, of the hydrographic ship Swallow, who describes Scarborough Shoal and says it is a dangerous reef, surrounded by large rocks, and at the South-East tip one can find a precarious anchorage only in a dead calm sea, in front of a lagoon....”
Spain then exercised search and rescue jurisdiction over the shoal, assisting vessels in distress by sending ships from Manila. The end of the 19th century saw the ceding of the Philippines to the United States via two treaties. While the 1898 Treaty of Paris described the Philippine Islands as all the islands within an irregular polygon, Spain also had sovereignty and jurisdiction over islands and places outside the borders. The 1900 Treaty of Washington clarified those islands and places to have been transferred to the United States as well. The American colonial government continued jurisdiction over the shoal, particularly through rescue and salvaging of ships in distress.
One well-documented event took place in 1913, when typhoon wrecked on the shoal the S.S. Nippon, a Swedish steamer carrying copra from Manila to Hong Kong. The shipwreck demonstrated maritime jurisdiction: Philippine maritime authorities rescued the ship’s crew, officially investigated the incident, and conducted subsequent scientific studies; the ship was subjected to Philippine salvage law.
The event is recorded as the case of Erlanger & Galinger v. The Swedish East Asiatic Co., GR No. L-10051, Philippine Supreme Court, 1916. Several ships, government and private, participated in the exercise; the dispute involved the ship and cargo owners, salvors, and insurers. In resolving it the Court discussed important details, thus recording the Philippine exercise of various jurisdictions.
The crew’s rescue also is recorded by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, which engaged three cutters, a scow, and the cable ship Rizal for months-long salvage. The American Governor-General’s report was among the transmittals to the US Government.
The colonial administration’s Bureau of Navigation conducted the investigation. Part of it is scientific research on the wreck, and effects of the sea on the copra cargo while the ship was still on the shoal. Results were published in the official scientific journal of the Government of the Philippine Islands. (Full text of Dr. Batongbacal’s lecture, with photos and maps, in the website of the Institute for Maritime and Oceanic Affairs: imoa.ph.)
(Next: Post-War Philippine Control of the Shoal)
* * *
Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA
E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com.
for 300 years
By Jarius Bondoc
“Putting out the fire while holding firewood,” a Chinese proverb goes. China’s communist rulers broadcast peaceful economic rise, yet bash the very laws on global amity. In Scarborough Shoal they use the might of arms instead of arbitration.
Prof. Jay L. Batongbacal, PhD, recently lectured on the solidity of the Philippine claim. As director of the University of the Philippines-Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, he is a leading researcher on the matter. Following is the second of a three-part condensation of his “Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal): Less Known Facts vs. Published Fiction”:
* * *
In law, when a disputant seeks third-party resolution, he must rely on the strength of his own claim, not the weakness of the other’s. With China’s fiction as backdrop, the solidity of the Philippine claim shines in its continuous exercise of jurisdiction over Bajo de Masinloc.
As exhibited by Justice Antonio T. Carpio, ancient Chinese maps detail only a few large islands of Luzon, like May-i (Mindoro). There is no indication of Huangyan Island or the very Chinese term “Huangyan.” In contrast are European maps of the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as regional geographic knowledge spread in the 17th century. Bajo de Masinloc first appeared as an unnamed reef associated with Luzon, under the notation “Punto de Mandato (Point of Mandate).”
Early 18th century maps indicated three distinct reefs west of Luzon. The 1734 Murillo Velarde map of the Philippine archipelago named them in Tagalog: Galit, Panacot, and Lumbay. All triangular, the reefs were on approaches to Manila, differently oriented north to south. Later maps reflected similar features, with varied distances to the coast. They acquired other names: Bajo de Bolinao, Bajo de Masinloc, and Bajo de Miravela, respectively. In some maps Bajo de Masinloc was also called Maroona or South Maroona. The multiple locations and different names arose from mapmaking inaccuracies at the time, before the invention of the shipboard chronometer.
Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
The imprecise position of the three reefs would soon be resolved — with the grounding of a British sailing ship HMS Scarborough, chartered by the East India Company to transport tea between China and British East Indies. On Sept. 12, 1748, the ship ran aground on a reef off Luzon. The captain’s log described the accident:
“At daylight, the rocks appeared frightful, though it pleased God the ship was on the sea side of the shoal, which is at least 2 leagues over and 8 long. On the east side of the shoal, the rocks are almost as high as those of Sicily, and a terrible sea breaks over them; on the west side, they are no bigger than a boat. They seemed to lie about North-Northwest and South-Southeast. I think the Scarborough was near their north end, seeing the water blue to the northward of them, and rocks were seen Southeast by South 3 leagues from the ship.”
The grounding was a big cartographic event, as maps published thereafter were annotated with it. The reef was thought to be different from Panacot, Galit, or Lumbay, although there later was debate if it was on Panacot or South Maroona. Some maps portrayed it as a fourth feature, designated as “Scarborough Shoal.” Eventually it was concluded to be Panacot or Bajo de Masinloc (or South Maroona or Marsingola, as some British maps called it).
More decades passed before debates fixed the coordinates of Scarborough Shoal. In May 1792 the Malaspina Expedition of the South China Sea, a major scientific undertaking of the time, ascertained the atoll’s exact position. The expedition also verified that the other two reefs shown in previous maps did not actually exist, and all such markings could only have referred to the same shoal. An extract translated from the expedition’s journal, dated May 4-6, 1792, stated:
“…[U]nder this supposition it will be necessary to exclude from the map of Mr Dalrymple the shoal with that name which is located at the distance of 57 leagues from land, and to establish as the only and true Scarborough another one located in the same latitude, but nearer to it... The exact position of this reef is very important because many vessels, national and foreign, have perished in it.”
With the position of Bajo de Masinloc and the absence of the two other reefs confirmed, General Alava’s Spanish naval squadron based in Cavite sent the frigate Santa Lucia, led by Capitan Francisco Riquelme to carry out the first detailed Spanish survey of the shoal, year 1800. Santa Lucia was among the first steam vessels Spain dispatched to the islands to suppress the Sultan of Sulu and Moro pirate-slavers.
The summary of Capitan Riquelme’s findings became a fixture in the Dorroteo del Archipielago Filipino, the Spanish guide for mariners. An 1879 translation of the Dorroteo stated:
“This low-lying reef, per Riquelme, extends more than 8-2/3 miles from North to South, and 9-1/2 miles from East to West from one end to the middle part, but from there narrowing until it ends in a tip. It is surrounded by horrible dangers that may appear without warning or other markings to serve notice of their proximity. Some rocks can be seen slightly above water only by close observation on a clear day, and only by having careful look-outs can one see the reef at a distance of 7 miles.”
On Mar. 13-18, 1866, Master & Commander Edward Wilds held a more detailed survey aboard the steam sloop HMS Swallow. A summary of his findings also appeared in the Dorroteo:
“Recently in March 1866, it was explored by Lieutenant Wilds, of the hydrographic ship Swallow, who describes Scarborough Shoal and says it is a dangerous reef, surrounded by large rocks, and at the South-East tip one can find a precarious anchorage only in a dead calm sea, in front of a lagoon....”
Spain then exercised search and rescue jurisdiction over the shoal, assisting vessels in distress by sending ships from Manila. The end of the 19th century saw the ceding of the Philippines to the United States via two treaties. While the 1898 Treaty of Paris described the Philippine Islands as all the islands within an irregular polygon, Spain also had sovereignty and jurisdiction over islands and places outside the borders. The 1900 Treaty of Washington clarified those islands and places to have been transferred to the United States as well. The American colonial government continued jurisdiction over the shoal, particularly through rescue and salvaging of ships in distress.
One well-documented event took place in 1913, when typhoon wrecked on the shoal the S.S. Nippon, a Swedish steamer carrying copra from Manila to Hong Kong. The shipwreck demonstrated maritime jurisdiction: Philippine maritime authorities rescued the ship’s crew, officially investigated the incident, and conducted subsequent scientific studies; the ship was subjected to Philippine salvage law.
The event is recorded as the case of Erlanger & Galinger v. The Swedish East Asiatic Co., GR No. L-10051, Philippine Supreme Court, 1916. Several ships, government and private, participated in the exercise; the dispute involved the ship and cargo owners, salvors, and insurers. In resolving it the Court discussed important details, thus recording the Philippine exercise of various jurisdictions.
The crew’s rescue also is recorded by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, which engaged three cutters, a scow, and the cable ship Rizal for months-long salvage. The American Governor-General’s report was among the transmittals to the US Government.
The colonial administration’s Bureau of Navigation conducted the investigation. Part of it is scientific research on the wreck, and effects of the sea on the copra cargo while the ship was still on the shoal. Results were published in the official scientific journal of the Government of the Philippine Islands. (Full text of Dr. Batongbacal’s lecture, with photos and maps, in the website of the Institute for Maritime and Oceanic Affairs: imoa.ph.)
(Next: Post-War Philippine Control of the Shoal)
* * *
Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA
E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com.
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