Pelabuhan Pangkalan Susu (1898-1942)

Abstract

Pangkalan Susu harbor was one of the important harbors which embarks the export of oil fuel as the natural wealth in Langkat area. Oil, found by Zijker in 1880, became the trigger of this area development which was called Pangkalan Susu. This harbor then became the harbor for exporting the first oil in the Dutch colonialism era (Indonesia) which caused it to become the factor of the success of the Langkat kingdom which was very rich at the time. The objective of the research was to explain the condition of Pangkalan Susu and its development and activity in oil export in the period of 1898-1942. The research used historical method with four heuristic stages in which the writer searched for archives concerning Pangkalan Susu harbor in the Indonesian National Archives, the Indonesian National Library, the Tengku Lukman Sinar Library, the Regional Library of North Sumatera Province, and the USU Library. The gathered data were verified, interpreted, ad the result was written descriptively in historiography. This harbor was built to help the activity of oil export from Pangkalan Berandan harbor which was far from Teluk Aroe so that tankers could not moor and change direction. Most of the activities in this harbor were exporting oil and pepper although they were not very important since it was focused on importing machines and spare-parts for oil drilling and refinery from European countries. Oil from Langkat would be sent to all areas of the East Indies and the Netherlands. The existence of oil in Langkat had caused Pangkalan Susu to become the harbor with complete facility although it used to be a small village. It became a harbor which had complete facilities which made it Special Oil Harbor in the East Indies.