NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, MAY 21
Continuing its relief and rescue efforts in cyclone-hit Gujarat, a ship of the Indian Coast Guard on Thursday rescued a 14-member crew of an Indian merchant vessel off Pipavav port and brought the ship to the shore on Friday, said a release by a defence spokesperson for Gujarat.
Merchant Vessel Samarpan off Pipavav was in distress. Assistance given by Coast Guard ship Samudra Pavak. Gave Fresh water, lemonade, biscuits, lunchpack & ORS. Enabled their supply so they could hv lighting at bridge & aided in partial recovery of steering pic.twitter.com/OBlZyjrYG2
— PRO Defence Gujarat (@DefencePRO_Guj) May 21, 2021
The ICGS Samudra Pavak was deployed for SAR in Gulf of Khambhat for providing assistance to distressed fishermen/ Merchant vessel in view of cyclone ‘Tauktae’. After getting information at about 3:25 pm on Thursday, the ship was directed to reach out to MV Samarpan with 14 Indian crew . MV Samarpan was raising continuous distress on VHF CH 16 regarding engine failure, steering breakdown and total power failure, the release added.
MV Samarpan is able to steer & is now proceeding to Mul Dwarka.
Samudra pavak is arriving back to Porbandar@IndiaCoastGuard @seaandcoast1 @CMOGuj @SpokespersonMoD @DefenceMinIndia @drajaykumar_ias @indiannavy @PIBHomeAffairs @shipmin_india @robmhgoa @goashipyardltd @KSBSectt pic.twitter.com/ZmnOHHBLJZ— PRO Defence Gujarat (@DefencePRO_Guj) May 21, 2021
The ship arrived datum at 4:12 pm on Thursday off Veraval coast. After assessment, the vessel was approached and ship’s boarding team boarded vessel at 4:30 pm. Post inspection of the vessel it was found that its Stbd main engine was non-operational. Due to heavy downpour and rough weather in cyclone the steering compartment was flooded resulting in steering failure. The ship’s 230 V power supply was also disrupted because of flooding. The ship’s main mast, including aerials, radars and bridge top structures were damaged and the vessel heeled slightly to stbd. As the power supply was not available, the crew was not able to cook food and the vessel was not having drinking water in view of contamination of fresh water tanks.
ICGS Samudra Pavak provided fresh water, lemonade, dry provisions and medicines to MV Samarpan. The ship’s technical team assessed the defect and provided technical assistance to MV Samarpan. The team was able to revive basic power supply of the ship. The team inspected the steering gear compartment and found solenoid to be defective. They could partially restore the Manual steering. At 08:50 am on Friday MV Samarpan finally got underway and started heading towards Mul Dwarka port for anchoring with Port main engine and manual steering after receiving instructions from owners.
