Some birds can't fly!: November 2008

When I first dived into Conch in 2004 (a 3555 ton big English oil tanker ship sunken near the coast of Akurala on the night of June 3, 1903) I simply understood why ship wrecks are so special within the divers. If you compare it with a normal coral reef, a ship wreck has a long story which attached to maritime history. It needs special attention when you dive in to a wreck than normal recreational diving procedures, in return you are well-rewarded. Sometimes you might be able to find some hidden treasure too! Identifying a shipwreck in the ocean & exploring the treasure is not as simple as I say here or you would see in a movie. Only handful of people in the world had ended up with success stories, yet some people have even sacrificed their lives for such causes. Even when you are just reading this, there are a countless number of ships lie on the beds of oceans with plenty of unrevealed secrets. Most of all, billions worth treasure still lies within those artifacts. Shipwrecks are simply legends!

Even though, people are not that aware, coasts of Sri Lanka is full of shipwrecks! As far as I know, Arthur C. Clarke and Mike Wilson are pioneering adventurers who dug this subject & actually made a success story at the end of the day. Both of them had passed away by now, after gaining very different aspects in the later parts of their lives. Anyway, my enthusiasm on this subject became increased while started reading about their adventures. While "Reefs of Taprobene" explains about their initial diving around the country to identify the wrecks and "The treasure of the great reef" reveals how they identified the Moghul time ship wreck near Great Basses & how they discovered the treasure. Everybody knows about Arthur C. Clarke.

Apart from all adventurous work done by them, I started wondering about the extra-ordinary capacity and energy of Mike Wilson through these books. He is simply a wonderful character! For me hero is not Arthur C. Clarke, but Mike Wilson! Anyway, his later life took a very different path way!!

Mike Wilson & Arthur C. Clarke

Mike Wilson's early life

Mike was born in London, England. He sailed to east with Merchant ships in his early life and then joined army. Then he was transferred to Parachute regiment & then again attached to special Frogmen unit of Royal Navy, where he became a very successful carder. After he discharged from the duties, he moved to Australia & became a licensed pearl diver. He was so crazy in scuba diving and under water explorations. He dived in Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Anyway, what is important from our point of view is, he moved to Sri Lanka with Arthur C. Clarke in 1956 & decided to stay in Sri Lanka, discovering her crystal clear waters & marine life.

They started exploring the Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka for coral reefs & wrecks as soon as they come to Sri Lanka. They were accompanied by the marine biologist: Mr. Rodney Jonklass. He has done a remarkable role in identifying the tropical fishes in Sri Lanka and Jonklaas's loach (or Lepidocephalichthys jonklaasi) is a rare endemic fresh water fish in Sri Lanka, which was named to commemorate his scientific service to the industry. They spent an enjoyable life in Sri Lanka while diving, diving with Sharks, catching fishes with spear guns, reading historical data & traveling everywhere. First under water filming in Sri Lankan waters were done in this era, for the first time in the history.

See what Arthur C. Clarke has to say about the motive force that made him fascinated of Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka;

“When I left England to join Mike Wilson on The Great Barrier Reef in 1954, I had np plans for any further under-water expeditions. However, during the afternoon that the P&O Himalaya stopped in Colombo, I met Ceylon’s pioneer skin diver, Rodney Jonklass, and he infected me with his enthusiasm for Indian Ocean.”

First underwater filming in Sri Lankan waters..

Treasure in the Great Basses

On March 12th 1961, Mike left to Kirinda with two other American boys to dive in Great Basses. They did some diving & filming as usual & had a good time. One morning, the sea was not that clear enough for filming, which made them decide to have a swim (as Arthur C. Clarke said later, it was the luckiest thing ever happened to them). They swam a long to find some more new regions of the reef. When they were about to return back, Mike observed something interesting on the sea bed. That was a small old canon, glittering with the sunshine. This simple incident was the starting point of a great discovery, a new ship wreck with treasure, which hadn't been identified by anyone else!

Words of Arthur C. Clarke;

Ran Muthu Duwa

In order to start the detail survey about the wreck in the next season, they needed some money to utilize. They needed a boat of their own & other equipments. When they were thinking of solving this financial problem, Mike came up with another bright idea of producing a Sinhala movie with under water scenes, which they can manage easily. This idea presented the first Sinhala Colour film Ranmuthu Duwa to Sinhala film history. Mike Wilson was the director while famous Gamini Fonseka, Joe Abeywickrema and Jeevarani Kurukulasooriya did the main roles. Nanda Malini, Amaradewa & Narada Dissasekara joined as vocalists while some lyrics were written by Mahagama Sekera.

Ranmuthu duwa was released in 1962 & it became very successful. From the money they earned, they did the exploration & managed to identify the wreck as a ship belongs to Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707, son of the great Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, India) which was sent off for trade in the far east but was sunk in a storm off the Great Basses. Also they discovered some silver treasure in it. Boat they built to do the expedition was named Ran Muthu.

Some of the Artifacts and treasure found from Great Basses;

One of my diving pals, Kusum managed to search the site in 2008 and captured this photo of the area. He was amazed with the beauty of the diving site.

How Mike's life changed

Mike visited Trincomalee in 1956 for the first time. He dived near Koneswarar Temple and also got some knowledge from Rodney, about what he could expect to see. He managed to find the old temple scattered beneath the sea as he was being explained. He understood it was a quite extra ordinary site with some hidden archeological and also a spiritual value. Also Mike had been told about the "Swayambhu Linga" which all the devotees of god Kataragama, were very much interested about.

"Swayambhu Linga" is somewhat, tomb like object which said to have a spiritual power, which originally found in Tibetan mountains, later brought to Sri Lanka by King Ravana, according to the legends. There said to have 69 such tombs originally. It has been kept in a sacred temple in the Koneswarar, but had been destroyed and splashed in to the sea by Portuguese invaders in the seventeenth century. Till then, this "Swayambhu Linga" was being searched by holy people worldwide who devote the legends of god Skunda, but couldn't find any trace.

When it was the time, Ranmuthu Duwa was filming near Trincomalee; Mike Wilson discovered this holy object and delivered it to Koneswarar Temple, where people started worshipping ever since. Mike came straight to the Colombo Museum archive & started reading about the history of the finding. He understood that, what he found was one of the original Lingums from 69 originals, where only few remains in the world today.

With all these findings, Mike started to believe that finding of the Lingum is not just a random happening, started to feel the power of it and finally decided to commit his entire life devoting the holy gift and do the needful rituals.

He believed that being seated alone in the presence of the Swayambhuwa Linga is, itself a part of the ritual. So he did so. He explained his experience; "One is aware of its enormous antiquity. And one's mind is able to soar back to the distant past and see all those who have sat there before."

He became a Swami (Swami Siva Kalki) and spent his remaining life in Kataragama as a devotee & doing rituals accordingly, till he passed away.

Mike Wilson as Swami Siva Kalki.

"It changed me completely," he declared in an interview in The Sunday Times of 18 November, 1990. "It was diksha (initiation) and darshan (divine vision) all in one. I understood something, how I had spent many lives here in Sri Lanka already, how this was not my first. I was prompted to go to Kataragama. One needs a place to sit and ponder; that place for me was Kataragama.

Koneswar Temple on Swami Rock

Above historical account is actually based on facts I read and heard as a diver and expedition enthusiast. Later on I spoke to few people in Trincomalee and especially to Rasika Muthucumarana who is one of the leading marine archeologists and realizes Mike / Clarke story is only one piece of a big puzzle for a true historian who would dive deep into the history of Swami Rock, now called Fort Frederick.

Below talk by Angeline Ondaatje would take you to the other missing pieces.