The Naval Dockyard walk, Sunday morning, is a disappointment. Captain Talwar, the Navy official guiding us, is genial and funny, but he seems unaware of the heat, and of the composition of the audience. At the beginning and at every stop, he talks at great length. The scraps of shade are not enough for the couple of hundred of us, so the rest must stand in the sun, which is quickly too much to bear for the several older people in our group. And there are also several young kids, who are quickly bored.
The entrance to the dockyard has two lanes, one marked “four wheelers only” (words to that effect). A truck drives in, and the young boy beside me points out excitedly: “It’s a six-wheeler! It shouldn’t be allowed!” True: at the rear, the vehicle has two wheels on each side.
Immediately around the corner from there is a touching memorial to the “unknown worker.” I like that, somehow. Across the road is a banner that lists the “core values” of the Indian Navy:
- Patriotism and Loyalty
Resolve and Fighting Spirit
Integrity and Honesty
Duty and Commitment
Example
Later, Captain Talwar tells us about how “Al-Omani” island became British-ized to “Old Woman” island, and how “Pal Bunder” became “Apollo Bunder”. These Britishers are crazy. And we also learned that the ship Minden, built right here in 1810, fought outside Baltimore during the 1812 War there, and it was on this ship that Francis Scott Key woke one morning, saw Old Glory still flying, and composed the Star-Spangled Banner. Besides, one more ship built here, the Trincomalee, is the second-oldest ship in the world that’s still afloat. (The first being the USS Constitution).
I love these tidbits of history.
Two ship’s steering wheels in the “Motivation Hall” - a sort of museum at the start of the tour. They have been polished and re-painted. This last, I know because on the face I read that the maker of these instruments is “A Robinson and Co”, of “Liverpool and Clascow”. (No typo, Clascow).
We get a good idea of how a dry dock works, why it is necessary and why it is such a valuable asset. We see two whale-like submarines and some other warships, hoisted up on pontoons. Men wandering below one of the ships, and I cannot help the macabre vision of the stands collapsing and the ship falling. (Doesn’t happen).
In the Duncan Dock, Captain Talwar tells us there is an unexplained source of fresh water, though it is not used for drinking. As we get there, he tells us that if we go look, we’ll see two men taking a bath in that water. So immediately, these two men have an audience several dozen strong, gawking as they lather and rinse themselves off. Why, I would have liked to ask the good Captain, make a spectacle of them?
A board we pass soon after reads, “Toilet for Ships”.
A piece of paper up on a wall lists a “Cricket Draw”. Matches are scheduled between “C of Y” and “MAST”, between “C.65? and “Ghatkopar”, between “C.37,38? and “MEPS” and between “MWEA” and “DAS-81?. When I last played a cricket tournament, oh about 50 years ago, we named our team “Tu Chal Mein Aaya” (”You Carry On, I’m Coming”).
No offence to the Navy, I like our name better.
