Kochi: The sail training ship of Indian Navy, INS Tarangini based at Kochi, returned after a seven-month sail across the world to the naval base in Kochi on Tuesday. The ship sailed over 22000 nautical miles across 15 ports in 13 countries in 205 days.
The ship was recei-ved by Rear Admiral RJ Nadkarni, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command. “The primary role of these Sail Training Ships is to develop character and professionalism, as well as inculcate the qualities of courage, resilience and perseverance,” Admiral Nadkarni said. “The ship and its crew have interacted with different people across countries, and she has proved to be true ambassador to the nation. This is one of the roles that all naval ships are supposed to carry out, what we call maritime diplomacy,” he said.
The voyage named ‘Lokayan 18’ was flag-ged off on April 10 from Kochi to sail acr-oss the Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea, Strait of Gibraltar, North Atlantic Ocean, Bay of Biscay, English Channel and North Sea, right up to Norway.
The ship also participated in the culminating event of the ‘Three Festival Tall Ships Regatta’ at Bordeaux, France, as well as the ‘Tall Ships Races Europe 2018’ which started at Sunderland, UK and touched Esbj-erg, Denmark and Sta-vanger, Norway before finishing at Harlingen, Netherlands.
“We were the only country outside Euro-pe which participated in all these events. Only advanced countries do these kinds of sea training and we are happy to have projected our own maritime heritage over there,” said Comman-der Rahul Mehta, captain of INS Tarangini.
The ship head to Mu-scat next month along with INS Sudarshini and Oman’s Zinat al Bihaar to participate in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium.
The navy officials said that the ship will soon be put for maintenance for few days before the journey on November 13.
It is a three masted 'square rigged' barque and also is the first Sail Training Ship in Indian Navy commissioned on 11 November 1997. The ship has sailed over 2,20,000 nautical miles in 21 years across the world's oceans. It has a crew of nine officers and 43 sailors and can also embark 30 Officer Sea Trainees.
Tarangini had been earlier deployed for long voyages, which includes one circumnavigation of the globe in 2003 and three previous ‘Lokayans’ in 2005, 2007 and 2015.
