MANGALURU: A Mangaluru based sailing vessel transporting construction materials to Lakshadweep islands sank near the islands on Thursday. Fortunately, the crew of the vessel were rescued in time by a container ship sailing in the vicinity.
The ill-fated vessel, Jehova Christ sailed from Mangaluru with construction material on Thursday as Lakshadweep depends on the sailing vessels operating from Mangaluru in Karnataka and Beypore and Kochi in Kerala for all their provisions. Jehova Christ belonged to Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu but she was operated from Mangaluru.
Under these circumstances, the vessel, nearing the Lakshadweep Islands, started taking water and sank. A container vessel picked up the distress signal of the crew members and relayed it to other vessels in the vicinity. Since no other vessels were responding to their relay messages, the container vessel came to the rescue of Jehova Christ and they could rescue the eight-member-crew in distress, said the sailing industry sources at Tuticorin.
Abdul Latheef, president of sailing vessel owners association at Mangaluru said that the container ship boarded the rescued crew into another sailing vessel that was coming from Lakshadweep to Mangaluru and the crew - mostly hailing from Tamil Nadu - reached Mangaluru safely on Saturday. But the vessel is lost with the cargo, he said.