Sailing vessel from M’luru sinks off Lakshadweep

Mangaluru: A sailing vessel from Mangaluru transporting construction materials to Lakshadweep islands sank near the islands on Thursday. However, a container ship sailing in the vicinity of the sinking vessel and rescued all of its crew.

Lakshadweep islands depend on the sailing vessels operating from Mangaluru in Karnataka and Beypore, Kochi in Kerala for all their provisions. The ill-fated vessel Jehova Christ belonged to Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu but operated from Mangaluru.

As the vessel was nearing Lakshadweep islands, it started taking in water and sinking. The crew onboard the vessel sent out SOS which was received by a container ship in the vicinity. The SOS was relayed to other vessels within its vicinity by the container ship and since there was no response to it, the ship altered its course and came to the rescue of Jehova Christ vessel. 8 crew members aboard the sinking vessel were successfully rescued.

President of sailing vessel owners association at Mangaluru Abdul Lateef informed that the rescued crew aboard the container ship were later boarded onto a sailing vessel that was sailing from Lakshadweep to Mangaluru. All the cargo along with the vessel was lost at sea, but the crew, mostly tamilians reached Managaluru safely on Saturday Mar 2^nd.