INS Sandhayak J 18 14 Mar 1981

                                 INS Sandhayak J 18 14 Mar 1981

                                                     

The Indian Navy has presently eight survey ships in commission. The eighth ship, Sarvekshak, was commissioned in December 2001. All these ships are built indigenously by the Indian ship-building yards in Kolkata and Goa. The Southern Command has two of these survey ships based at Kochi namely INS Sutlej and INS Jamuna. Besides carrying out their primary role of hydrographic survey as allotted by the Chief Hydrographer, they also assist in times of war and natural calamities. The ships are fitted with state-of-the-art survey equipment. INS Jamuna was closely associated in the relief operations in the wake of the Gujarat earthquake. During 1994-95, these ships undertook survey for the Sultanate of Oman earning Rs 18.2 crore in foreign exchange. These survey ships have also provided extensive survey assistance to Indonesia and Mauritius in the past.

Hydrographic surveys play an important role in the exploration process of the marine resources. The maritime transport routes including the traffic separation schemes and deep water routes are required to be adequately surveyed before they can be indicated on navigational charts. The UN conference on `Law of the Sea' have provisions for the coastal states to claim Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) upto 200 nautical miles and more, subject to their carrying out hydrographic/geophysical survey and submitting its claim to the UN commission.

In mid-2000 INS Sarvekshak built by Goa Shipyard Limited was commissioned in the Indian Navy at Kochi by Mr Ved Prakash Goyal, Minister of Shipping. The ship is ninth in the series of the Navy's hydrographic survey fleet which reflects the technological advancement of Indian shipbuilding industry. The indigenously designed and constructed INS Sarvekshak has superior design features and is equipped with the latest survey and hydrographic equipment, machinery, navigational and communication aids and sensors. These are ideally designed to meet the stringent international/ISC 9002 digital survey accuracy standards in shallow and deep waters required for the production of electronic navigational charts and publications in a highly competitive hydrographic world. This further reinforces the Navy's sustained commitment to indigenisation. Powered by two diesel engines which deliver 2,400 BHP each, the ship has a top speed of 16 knots. Equipped with state-of-the-art hydrographic survey aids, the ship can undertake full-scale coastal and oceanic hydrographic survey of ports and harbours and collection of oceanographic and geophysical data.

The hydrographic survey vessel Darshak, built by Goa Shipyard Ltd for the Indian Navy, was commissioned into the Naval service at Visakhapatnam in mid-2001. This ship is the eighth vessel in the series of Navy's hydrographic survey vessels which have all been indigenously designed and constructed. Incidentally, the first indigenously built survey ship of the Navy inducted in 1964 was also named as INS Darshak which was ultimately decommissioned in 1990 after a quarter century of illustrious service in the Navy.

The new Darshak has been built with superior design features and equipped with a range of the latest surveying, navigational and communication systems. The new generation surveying systems provided onboard include the multibeam swath echo sounding system, differential global positioning system, motion sensors, sea gravimeter, magnetometer oceanographic sensors, side scan sonars and an automated data logging system. These are ideally designed to meet the stringent international/ISO 9002 digital survey accuracy standards required for the production of electronic navigation charts and publications in a highly competitive hydrographic world.

The Darshak is powered by two diesel engines which make her a virtual work-house, capable of sustained speeds. The ship's multi-role capability places her in the league of the most versatile survey vessels of the world. It can undertake a variety of tasks under trying conditions.

INS Darshak, a hydrographic survey ship of the Eastern Naval Command, unearthed submerged wrecks of Tamil Nadu which have a great historical significance. The 2004 exploration was a part of the endeavours of the Naval Headquarters to obtain more authentic knowledge in maritime history. The project for exploring the submerged remains of the lost city of Poompuhar in Tamil Nadu was tasked to INS Darshak.

The naval ship, commanded by Capt P Jayapal, was deployed off Poompuhar, about 15 nautical miles north of Nagapattinam. The ship carried out an extensive hydrographic survey and diving operations in the area off Tharangambadi (formerly known as Tranquebar) coast. During the operations that lasted for nearly a month, the ship recovered a few prominent objects of archaelogical importance. A 'U' shaped structure, located three miles into the sea at a depth of 23 metres, was discovered during one of the dives. The structure was 85 metres in peripheral length and about two metres in height while the distance between the arms was about 13 metres. The structure was covered with marine growth and the centre was buried under silt. Local fishermen claimed that the structure was one of the six such structures submerged under water.

Darshak also recovered a shipwreck supposed to be of a Dutch ship sunk by the French during the end of 18th century. As a result of diving over the structure, three lead ingots, about one-metre long and weighing approximately 80 kg each, were recovered. They were marked with W. Blackett which was the name of a British company and the marking 1792 was presumably the date of their manufacture. Moreover, the ingots carried an inscription 'Vior' in a heart shape which was the emblem of the Dutch East India Company.

The naval divers carried out extensive diving at the site and identified a two-metre long cannon deeply embedded in the seabed which was fastened to a structure on the wreck. The ship's diving team executed a daring manoeuvre on top of the wreck and hauled out the cannon from the seabed. This operation was a very difficult task compounded by adverse sea conditions. It was a test of the efficiency and skill of the staff as the ship was not equipped to carry out excavations of such nature. The cannon, which was covered with extensive marine growth, was 2.1 metres in length and weighed approximately 700 kg.