official residence of the
Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, located in SLN Dockyard Trincomalee is a natural deep-water harbour that has attracted seafarers like
Marco Polo,
Ptolemy and traders from China and East Asia since ancient times. Trinco, as it is commonly called, has been a sea port since the days of the ancient Sri Lankan Kings. The earliest known reference to the port of Gokanna is found in the
Mahavamsa stating that in the 5th century BC, when
King Vijaya who having failed to convince his brother to come to Sri Lanka as his successor, got down his youngest son Panduvasdeva, who landed at Gokanna and was subsequently enthroned at Upatissagama. King
Parakramabahu I used Gokanna (Trincomalee) as his eastern port, to launch a successful invasion of Burma in the 12th century. During the colonial expansion into the
Indian Ocean, Trincomalee was occupied by the
Portuguese,
Dutch,
French and finally by the
British who used the natural harbour extensively. The Portuguese built a fort to control the area and the Dutch expanded and built another to protect the harbour. The largest of these is
Fort Fredrick built in 1624 by the Portuguese and exchanged hands until the British took over it in 1795. The smaller
Fort Ostenburg was built on top of Ostenburg ridge at the entrance to the inner harbour of Trincomalee. The British used Trincomalee has an anchorage for Royal Navy ships in the Indian Ocean. With switch to steam powered ships from the age of sailing, the Royal Navy established a
coaling station in Trincomalee as part of their large network of support bases throughout the empire. This was the begin of a permanent Royal Navy
shore establishment in Trinco. With the beginning of the 20th century size of the
Royal Naval Dockyard of Trincomalee grew as the facilities were increased during and after
World War I. A large
tank farm was built close to the dockyard store
fuel oil of any size fleet, along with dry docks and maintenance facilities to support any ship of the Royal Navy. Due to the increase in personnel on shore and from visiting ships the
Royal Naval Hospital Trincomalee was established within the yard. In 1920, the British began deploying
coastal artillery on the
Ostenburg ridge, which was within the dockyard to protect the entrance to the Trincomalee harbor which had now become a major Royal Navy base in the
Far East. Mounted on the ridge was a battery of three
BL 6 inch Mk VII naval guns manned by the personal of Coastal Regiments of the
Royal Artillery. At same time the first purpose-built
military airfield was built across the harbor, near the China Bay. The
Royal Air Force station of
RAF China Bay was soon operational to provide air defense to Trincomalee. With the outset of
World War II, Trincomalee's defences were boosted the installation of two
BL 9.2 inch Mk IX–X guns and anti-aircraft batteries manned by the Royal Artillery and the
Ceylon Garrison Artillery. With the fall of
Singapore, Trincomalee dockyard home port for the newly formed
Eastern Fleet under the command of Admiral Sir
James Somerville. Although he found good facilities, the inadequate air defenses prompted Somerville to move the fleet to a secret base in
Addu Atoll. With
Chuichi Nagumo's
Indian Ocean raid in April 1942 these fears were born out. Following the
Easter Sunday Raid on
Colombo on 9 April, the Japanese attacked the dockyard at Trincomalee. , HMAS
Vampire and the were sunk. HMS
Hermes was undergoing repairs in Trincomalee harbour in April 1942. As a result of the advance warning of the impending attack by the Japanese,
Hermes left Trincomalee, minus the 12
Fairey Swordfish Mk Is of 814 Naval Air Squadron, disembarked. A Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted
Hermes off Batticaloa, and 70 Japanese bombers attacked the defenceless
Hermes forty times. The carrier sank with the loss of 307 sailors. The RAF lost at least eight Hurricanes and the FAA one
Fairey Fulmar. The Japanese lost five bombers and six fighters, one in a suicide attack on the Trincomalee fuel tanks. Seven hundred people lost their lives in the attack on Trincomalee. According to eye witness Michael Tomlinson (author of
The Most Dangerous Moment and RAF Station Intelligence Officer at Ratmalana and later at China Bay in Trincomalee), one Japanese flyer deliberately crashed his plane into one of the giant fuel tanks just north of China Bay aerodrome. The Eastern Fleet return to Trincomalee in late 1942.
Operation Diplomat, a training exercise, took place in late March 1944. The objective was for the fleet to rendezvous with a group of tankers (escorted by ) and practice refuelling at sea procedures. They then rendezvoused with
United States Navy Task Force 58.5, comprising and three destroyers, and returned to Trincomalee on 31 March. The U.S. task force had been detached to the Indian Ocean to bolster local air defences and also to impart necessary procedures to FAA aircrew, which was done over two or three days' intensive activity at sea. Sources for the dates of return to Trincomalee and the joint US/UK training differ. In 1944, a wireless station was established in Trincomalee. The Royal Navy presence in Ceylon came to an end in 1956, when Prime Minister
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike requested the removal of all British service personnel from the island. The dockyard was taken over by the
Royal Ceylon Navy and became the home port for its newly established fleet. During
Black July and
Sri Lankan civil war, many sailors from this base rioted and destroyed property around the base. ==Units==