tarangini circumnavigation mission
Ins Tarangini will circumnavigate world
MUMBAI, July 16/2002:
Ins Tarangini, a three-masted sail ship of the Indian Navy, will circumnavigate the globe next year.
The voyage, expected to commence in February 2003, will conclude in April 2004.
The sleek varuna-class training ship attached to the Indian Navy’s Southern Command, will sail through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean sea to the Atlantic Ocean onwards to New York port and then the great lakes.
From the great lakes, it will proceed to Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean to the East Coast of Australia and then to South East Asia and Sri Lanka.
"This is the route followed to circumnavigate the earth if one starts the voyage from Indian ports," a senior Indian Navy official told UNI.
"It is a unique mission and there is lot of excitement among our officers and men," Commander Pranav Parashar of the Western Naval Command (WNC) said.
Defence sources said that in July-August 2003, Ins Tarangini will also participate in the tall ships race featuring vessels from all over the world.
Navy officials noted that such a goodwill mission will foster seamanship among the naval personnel world-wide and cited the international fleet review held in Mumbai in February 2001 in which around 25 countries participated showcasing the skills of sailors. Maritime experts and defence analysts have hailed the decision of the Indian Navy to sail on such a mission.
Captain (retd) Vijay Shivdasani, who commanded aircraft carrier ‘Vikrant’ told UNI here that such adventures boost the morale of the officers and sailors.
"It is a challenge as one has to navigate through the help of stars and winds," he said adding, "since time immemorial man wanted to circumnavigate the earth and this is evident from old books and manuscripts".
"Though Ins Tarangini has a minimal motoring power, in such expeditions, the wind energy is used and the navigators take the help of compass and sextants only to sail and use stars to maintain the direction," Capt Shivdasani noted.
Major General (retd) Harry Kapoor, who played a key role in chalking out and executing the internationally-acclaimed Trishna Circumnavigation Mission in 1985-86, described the move as interesting and challenging.
Trishna was the first circumnavigation mission undertaken by a group of 10 Army officers in a sailboat and they completed it in a year’s time.
"It is a challenging task. One has to be physically and mentally prepared for such missions. The endurance is the most important fact," he said.
"For the first three to four weeks there are enough food but later on one had to depend mostly on liquid diet. He said in modern times, besides the conventional navigational aids, one can use equipments like Global Positioning System (GPS)".
He recalled that in the past some people abroad have done it solo. He also cited the example of customs official Gulshan Rai and his wife, who navigated around the globe in the late eighties.
"It is a challenging task. One has to face rough sea at times... The weather is really really bad...," says Maj Gen Kapoor, a retired Army Engineer.
Indian Navy sources said that Ins Tarangini has a displacement of 420 tons (full load) and the dimensions are length 54 mts, beam 8.5 mts and draught four mts. It can sail at a maximum speed of 10 knots. The general complement of the ship is one commanding officer, five offiers, six seamen, four petty officers and 45 cadets.
Cadets from National Cadet Corps and Sea Cadet Corps may also be included in the mission besides navy officers and men, according to the sources.
Ins Taranini was built at the Goa Shipyard Ltd and commissioned in the navy in 1997. The vessel is steel hulled with an aluminium deckhouse with teak interiors. It forms part of the Ist training squadron based in Kochi in Southern Naval Command.
Only 27 navies of the world operate sail traning ships including 15 in Europe, five in Latin America and three in Asia.
According to a researcher, Capt (retd) R N Gulati, such missions should be looked at in the perspective of man’s quest to further understand marine life. "In fact man knows more about space than what is underwater. There are over a million species of life still to be explored which inhabit the deep of the oceans. Almost one-fifth of the food supply is harvested from the oceans. Over 90 per cent of the world trade is carried in ships across the oceans," he has noted. (UNI)
MUMBAI, July 16/2002:
Ins Tarangini, a three-masted sail ship of the Indian Navy, will circumnavigate the globe next year.
The voyage, expected to commence in February 2003, will conclude in April 2004.
The sleek varuna-class training ship attached to the Indian Navy’s Southern Command, will sail through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean sea to the Atlantic Ocean onwards to New York port and then the great lakes.
From the great lakes, it will proceed to Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean to the East Coast of Australia and then to South East Asia and Sri Lanka.
"This is the route followed to circumnavigate the earth if one starts the voyage from Indian ports," a senior Indian Navy official told UNI.
"It is a unique mission and there is lot of excitement among our officers and men," Commander Pranav Parashar of the Western Naval Command (WNC) said.
Defence sources said that in July-August 2003, Ins Tarangini will also participate in the tall ships race featuring vessels from all over the world.
Navy officials noted that such a goodwill mission will foster seamanship among the naval personnel world-wide and cited the international fleet review held in Mumbai in February 2001 in which around 25 countries participated showcasing the skills of sailors. Maritime experts and defence analysts have hailed the decision of the Indian Navy to sail on such a mission.
Captain (retd) Vijay Shivdasani, who commanded aircraft carrier ‘Vikrant’ told UNI here that such adventures boost the morale of the officers and sailors.
"It is a challenge as one has to navigate through the help of stars and winds," he said adding, "since time immemorial man wanted to circumnavigate the earth and this is evident from old books and manuscripts".
"Though Ins Tarangini has a minimal motoring power, in such expeditions, the wind energy is used and the navigators take the help of compass and sextants only to sail and use stars to maintain the direction," Capt Shivdasani noted.
Major General (retd) Harry Kapoor, who played a key role in chalking out and executing the internationally-acclaimed Trishna Circumnavigation Mission in 1985-86, described the move as interesting and challenging.
Trishna was the first circumnavigation mission undertaken by a group of 10 Army officers in a sailboat and they completed it in a year’s time.
"It is a challenging task. One has to be physically and mentally prepared for such missions. The endurance is the most important fact," he said.
"For the first three to four weeks there are enough food but later on one had to depend mostly on liquid diet. He said in modern times, besides the conventional navigational aids, one can use equipments like Global Positioning System (GPS)".
He recalled that in the past some people abroad have done it solo. He also cited the example of customs official Gulshan Rai and his wife, who navigated around the globe in the late eighties.
"It is a challenging task. One has to face rough sea at times... The weather is really really bad...," says Maj Gen Kapoor, a retired Army Engineer.
Indian Navy sources said that Ins Tarangini has a displacement of 420 tons (full load) and the dimensions are length 54 mts, beam 8.5 mts and draught four mts. It can sail at a maximum speed of 10 knots. The general complement of the ship is one commanding officer, five offiers, six seamen, four petty officers and 45 cadets.
Cadets from National Cadet Corps and Sea Cadet Corps may also be included in the mission besides navy officers and men, according to the sources.
Ins Taranini was built at the Goa Shipyard Ltd and commissioned in the navy in 1997. The vessel is steel hulled with an aluminium deckhouse with teak interiors. It forms part of the Ist training squadron based in Kochi in Southern Naval Command.
Only 27 navies of the world operate sail traning ships including 15 in Europe, five in Latin America and three in Asia.
According to a researcher, Capt (retd) R N Gulati, such missions should be looked at in the perspective of man’s quest to further understand marine life. "In fact man knows more about space than what is underwater. There are over a million species of life still to be explored which inhabit the deep of the oceans. Almost one-fifth of the food supply is harvested from the oceans. Over 90 per cent of the world trade is carried in ships across the oceans," he has noted. (UNI)
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