INDIA DEFENCE CONSULTANTS
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WHAT'S HOT? –– ANALYSIS OF RECENT
HAPPENINGS |
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INDIAN NAVY –– SAILING AROUND THE WORLD An IDC Analysis (With a brief write-up on Goa Shipyard Limited, which built the Indian Navy's sail training ship INS Tarangini)
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New Delhi, 18
May 2003
Indian Navy’s sail training ship INS TARANGINI Sail Ship TARANGINI Sailors of yore roamed the high seas in sailing ships in search of treasures and new lands. They grew their ‘sea legs’ battling the unmerciful oceans and honed their leadership qualities against tough crewmen and pirates. They acquired that indefinable quality called ‘sea sense’, The sea is a hard and unforgiving taskmaster, demanding from those who sail her great courage, endurance, initiative, seamanship and above all comradeship and teamwork. It was with the aim of inculcating all these qualities in the young officers who opt for a naval career, that modern navies maintain and operate sailing ships even today. The Indian Navy has its own sail training ship TARANGINI. The name is derived from the Hindi word ‘Tarang,’ signifying ‘a waving movement’ or the waves. In
sailing parlance the ship is a three-masted ‘Barque’ i.e.
square-rigged on the fore and mainmasts and fore-and-aft rigged on
the mizzenmast (see picture). Mr Colin Mudie, a famous naval
architect and yacht designer of UK designed the ship, which was
built at Goa Shipyard Ltd. Reputed firms from UK supplied the
sailing rig. The
ship was commissioned on 11 Nov 1997, primarily for the sail
training of naval cadets. Cadets of the National Defence Academy,
Naval Academy and INS Shivaji, the technical cadets’ training
establishment, also undergo sail training capsules on board
TARANGINI. A sailing ship is the natural training ground for
naval personnel and sail training provides an excellent platform for
basic seamanship. It teaches initiative and how to use it to best
advantage. The main value of sail training in this modern
machine age is to foster the somewhat old-fashioned
character virtues of courage, comradeship and endurance. In this age
of technology where basics get forgotten, navies the world over
increasingly use sail training ships for basic seamanship training
and as character building platforms. TARANGINI
was built for worldwide operations. She carries eighteen sails with a
sail area of almost 1000 sq m. The ship has very high endurance and
can be deployed at sea continuously for a period of twenty days. She
has a permanent complement of six officers and
twenty-seven sailors and can accommodate and impart sail training to
30 cadets at a time. Cadets
embarking on a naval career get first hand experience of the
vagaries of the sea from this sailing platform. All sailing
maneuvers require experience of the basic elements of marine
environment viz. wind, weather and waves. They also need nicety of
judgement and that indefinable quality of ‘sea sense’,
which a sailing ship demands. The principal qualification for
command or any other position of responsibility at sea requires
strength of character and a good deal of ‘sea sense’.
Sail training imparts all these virtues. World
Voyage –– The Spirit of Adventure Indian Naval Ship
Tarangini sailed out
of her homeport of Kochi on a voyage to circumnavigate the world on
23 Jan 2003 and is scheduled to return to Kochi in April 2004. The theme of this
globe-trotting voyage is 'bridging friendship across the oceans.'
A number of maritime nations, particularly from the
developing world operate large sailing ships as a means of
developing their human resources. The objective is not merely to
expose young officers and sailors to the use of sails, various types
of ropes and operation of ships of the bygone era but also to
develop a spirit of adventure and inculcate in each man the
laudable qualities of team work, cohesiveness, espirit de corps,
alertness, physical and mental agility, leadership qualities, the
ability to face challenges with confidence, resoluteness and a
positive attitude. Tarangini’s voyage is also an opportunity to project India's aspirations for revival of seafaring capabilities and inculcate the spirit of adventure amongst the cadets and crew of the ship. Character building and sail and seamanship training capsules will be imparted to the cadets and midshipmen of the Indian Navy and friendly foreign countries, thereby building ‘bridges of friendship across the oceans’. The IN will also interact with regional navies and other authorities to project India as a major maritime and seafaring nation. This little sail training ship completed her first leg from Kochi to Palermo in Italy and is now crossing the Atlantic on the second leg to New York. She has had a great cruise till Palermo. She will be in New York on 21 May 03 and the maritime community of New York has arranged a reception for the Commanding Officer and officers of the ship. Our rep will be there in new York to report first hand on her visit. During
the course of her voyage, Tarangini will visit 36 ports in 17
countries. The ship will also participate in the tall ships races,
to be conducted by the American Sail Training Association in the
Great Lakes. The
circumnavigation voyage is planned in six legs, each leg of
approximately 2-1/2 months duration. During each leg Tarangini will
be manned by a permanent crew and assisted by 30 cadets of the First
Training Squadron. The cadets and crew will be changed at the end of
each leg. A total of about 300 officers and 60 sailors will
participate in this maiden globe-circling voyage by the only tall
ship of India. Goa
Shipyard Limited It would not be out of place to extol the virtues of the Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), established in 1957 during the Portuguese days in Goa, which built the sail ship TARANGINI. The shipyard is today a well-established, flexible Defence public sector undertaking (PSU) and an ISO 9001 company meeting the exacting requirements of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, civil departments and the export market. It has so far built and delivered 167 vessels. GSL naturally is proud of building this fine sail ship, which is the first and only one of its type built in the country. GSL has 10,000 sq mts of completely covered space for building ships, four slipways for launching and repair of ships and a 180 m long Jetty for outfitting and harbour trials. The shipyard boasts the following modern facilities:
GSL can design and build ships up to 105 m in length, with launch weight of 3000 tons and 4.5 m draught. The installed capacity of this shipyard for annual steel throughput is 5000 tons. GSL has a dedicated and experienced team of 1800 employees including 170 well qualified naval architects, mechanical, marine, electrical and electronic engineers. GSL has earned the distinction of being the only Shipyard in the country that implements ERP for all functions. GSL has so far built ships for customers such as:
GSL specialises in :
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