As recounted in another episode, my tenure as Director General Shipping was fraught with unusual crises, making a close friend of mine accuse me jokingly that I was engineering all these for TRP. “Pehle to aise crisis nahee hote the. (We did not have such crises earlier)”
How could I convince him that the massive, 9000 tonne, cargo ship ‘MV Wisdom’ did not seek my permission to break away from its tugboat, which was taking it to Alang Yard for scrapping, and happily drifted to Juhu. It decided to beach near Juhu uninvited, close to the bunglow of Mr Amitabh Bachchan who was ‘startled’ to see this ‘monster’ when he woke up in the morning. My guess was that the poor ship was unhappy about being towed to Alang yard for being scrapped and decided to break away from its tug boat.
And if this was nothing, just a few weeks later there was another ‘ghost’ ship MV Pavit, drifting close to Juhu, but taking care not to bother the Bachchans this time. Surely, I did not ask that ship to drift all the way from the Gulf of Oman to Juhu, merrily escaping the notice of our maritime security apparatus, crossing everybody’s jurisdiction – the Navy, the Coast Guard and the State Police. No one could notice ‘no activity’ on the ship during day time, nor could they see the huge ship floating in the night with no lights! This remains a mystery till date.
Coming back to MV Wisdom, when the news of its uninvited beaching came, the first worry was about any oil spill. An oil spill anywhere is bad, but on a beach like Juhu – it is even worse. So, the first task was to start a vigil on oil spill. An urgent meeting was called. My Nautical Advisor Mr Saggi, was a very competent, experienced and a cool-headed officer. He had already given preliminary instructions to the in-charge of the Bombay office.
How do we send back this uninvited guest? Technically, a wise officer of mine told me, it was not our headache. This is within the jurisdiction of the State Maritime Board. I politely overruled him. Having dealt with one of the worst accidents in the history of shipping between two ships – MV Chitra and MV Khalijia near Mumbai port (a story for another episode), I was aware of the implications of getting this ‘monster’ afloat again and it was quite beyond the ability of a state MMB. Eventually the task would have landed on DG’s lap. It was better to proactively get on with it now.
Removing this ship would need strong professional effort and that would cost money. So, one must contact the owners and nudge them into immediate action. This ship would certainly need support from no less that SMIT salvage, the renowned Singapore based salvage company which had successfully salvaged the ships involved in the infamous shipping accident mentioned above. However, in shipping, the ownership is hidden behind number of veils and it is difficult to find out the real owner. Even Captain Saggi was unsure about the time it will take to find this out and contact the owner. It was also necessary to assess the leverage we could have on the owners given that the refloating operation would cost a good amount of money and they have to sign what’s known as an open form, virtually agreeing to pay up all the unforeseen cost that the refloating operation may need.
Luckily, my handling of various crises, including the Somalian Piracy and accident near Mumbai Port, had earned the confidence of many people in the trade. One of them, who was looking for a market for his ‘data intelligence’ service had given me a demonstration about the comprehensiveness of his data base. He was also generous to give me an access to it ‘in strict confidence’, for me to see its utility. I not only managed to find out the owners, I also found out the name of their two ships that were in India at that time. Triumphantly, I called Captain Saggi and his colleagues and shared the details. We now had our shoe on the owner’s tail! “Ask them to sign up SMIT immediately”, I told the NA, who must till date be wondering how I could get this information so quickly.
The owners obliged. SMIT salvage were happy. “Unki to Diwali ho gayee sir hamari wajah se (they have hit a jackpot sir thanks to us). First Khalijia, then Chitra and now this!
Diwali or no Diwali, SMIT knew their job. They mobilized their powerful tug boat and other supporting vessels quickly. But this operation was tricky. The ship had no engine to run – it had to be tugged. For that it had to be afloat, which meant that the tide should be high enough for it to float and be towed away. Which further meant that we depended on the high tide pattern and await the highest tide. But tugging the shape meant that massive, heavy ropes had to be put on the ship. No boat or vehicle could do it – only helicopters. We needed Navy’s help. The required high tide was not very far in time – a couple of days.
Luck and cordial relations matter. The handling of the Khalijia-Chitra accident had created considerable comradery between us and the Navy. What added to it was my past equation with the Naval Headquarters in Delhi when I was Joint Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat. Navy obliged readily. State Government was more than happy to give logistical support for crowd management. The spot was now a tourist attraction! In fact, at IIT Bombay, where I used to go for some visiting lectures, even the security staff at the main gate would ask me about the ship and the operations. “Kal bachchon ko le ke jaane kaa hai, dikhane ke liye.” one of them told me quite happily. I was not quite amused!
The first attempt failed. The tug boat could not be connected in good time. In the second attempt, the tide turned out to be too weak. In the third attempt the tide was okay, but Murphy’s law worked. The powerful tug boat itself faced some engine malfunctioning and by the time it was set right, the tide advantage was lost. Some more wait followed.
My transparent communication with the press and an evenhanded treatment of media channels, did have its effect. There was no adverse coverage. In fact, our efforts were reported in a very positive light.
Finally, in the wee hours of a Saturday, July 2nd 2011, when the tide was the highest, SMIT team managed to get MV Wisdom afloat and tow it away. Our DDG, Captain Khatri, by now familiar with my trust in Murphy’s law, waited for a couple of hours before breaking the news on me. I was relieved.
While I was having my breakfast, a colleague rang (I would not name him) “ Arey Satish, that ship at Juhu Beach, who nikal gaya kyaa (has it left)?”
“Left?” I responded. “Not left, it was towed away this morning. We got the high tide in our favour in the wee ours of the morning, you see.”
But he was not in a mood to listen. “Arey, usko weekend par kyoon nikalaa yaar (why did you take it out before the weekend yaar)?. I had actually promised my grandchildren to take them to see it. I told them about you being my friend. They were so excited. The whole family was going. Now everybody is disappointed. Anyway, congratulations.” He hung up.
I kept staring at the screen of my mobile phone !!