FACTS STRANGER THAN FICTION – PART I – MISTER INDIA AND HIS SHIP

(Starting a new series today on this topic. Many of you would be incredulous but I vouch for their factual correctness. All of these are first hand.)

Navy, as a service, is different from the service on land or in the air; and it is not just because of the medium in which it operates. Unlike the other two services, naval platforms operate in all three media: the surface, underwater, and in the air. It is much more than that. Although it doesn’t require great technical expertise to be at sea (you can be on a log that floats), the Navy continues being a quaint service. Some of the curious things that happen at sea often amaze people and they keep asking such questions as: How could they have missed such a huge ship at sea? How did the ship just vanish? Was it a submarine? If I was there, it won’t have happened this way.

To know about the sea, please read: ‘The Lure Of The Sea’.

I was on the staff of the FOC – in – C (East) as Command Communication Officer (CCO) and used to attend CinC’s Morning Briefings in MOR (Maritime Ops Room; now called MOC). Before the discussions would start, there would be a standard presentation regarding deployment of ships, submarines and aircraft and their operational readiness or otherwise. Platforms under refit or maintenance period would be displayed separately. Then there would be briefing for weather and other command activities such as visits of dignitaries.

In one of these, the ASD (Admiral Superintendent Dockyard) had to face unprecedented embarrassment for having an SDB (Seaward Defence Boat; these too are commissioned as Indian Naval Ships; please see the attached picture of SDB T55 at the time of her decommissioning recently in Mumbai) under refit for about four years!

Inquiry brought out that the ship was brought from Port Blair (where she was based) fot refit at Vizag. The CO (a Lieutenant Commander) had his family at Vizag (his last duty station before he was appointed CO of the SDB at Port Blair in Andaman & Nocobar groups of islands) and he was quite happy about the refit taking its own time. There was no attempt by him and his successor for expediting the refit.

Soon, everyone forgot about his ship and him. Like Anil Kapoor in Sridevi movie Mr. India, they just vanished from public eye.

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Author: Sunbyanyname

I have done a long stint in the Indian Navy that lasted for nearly thirty seven years; I rose as far as my somewhat rebellious and irreverent nature allowed me to. On retirement, in Feb 2010, the first thing that occurred to me, and those around me, was that I Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (you will find an article with this title in this blog) and hadn't lost all my noodles and hence thought of a blog titled 'This 'n That'. I later realised that every third blog is called 'This 'n That' and changed the name to 'Sunbyanyname'. I detest treading the beaten track. This blog offers me to air 'another way' of looking at things. The idea is not just to entertain but also to bring about a change. Should you feel differently, you are free to leave your comments. You can leave comments even when you agree and want to share your own experience about the topic of the blog post. Impudent or otherwise, I have never been insousciant and I am always concerned about the betterment of community, nation and the world. I hope the visitors of this blog would be able to discern it. View all posts by Sunbyanyname