Mangaluru: A sailing vessel transporting construction materials and provisions to the Lakshadweep islands, listed and sank near the islands on Tuesday night. According to reports, the vessel, Faisal Hussain, with seven crew members sailed from Mangaluru old port and anchored near the Kiltan Island on Tuesday.
Besides, the vessel, upon approaching Kiltan Island, suffered a hull breach and started taking water eight to nine nautical miles away from shore. In desperate attempt to save lives and cargo, the crew rushed to shore and ran aground resulted in listing of the vessel.
"All the crew members have been safely repatriated to the shore. However, the cargo of construction materials and provisions (food items) are lost. Efforts are underway to save the sinking vessel," said Abdul Latheef, president of Sailing Vessels Owners Association at Mangaluru.
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Lakshadweep islands, the union territory of India, in the Arabian sea depends on these sailing vessels for most of their provisions. The sailing vessels catering to Lakshadweep islands operate from Kochi and Beypore ports of Kerala and Mangaluru port of Karnataka.
The ancient sailing vessels industry which operated wooden vessels with mere sails to all neighbouring countries in the last century has taken a drubbing after the boom of merchant shipping.
The industry now is confined to Tuticorin and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, Kochi and Beypore in Kerala and Mangaluru in Karnataka and a few ports of Gujarat.
The Tamil Nadu based vessels caters to the Maldives, Kerala and Karnataka based vessels to Lakshadweep islands while Gujarat based vessels mostly ferry goods to the ports in the Middle East.
