Wednesday, October 9, 2013

End point

This pier is just outside and parallel to the eastern boundary of the Bharati Dock. It juts out a long way to the northeast, and helps to form a channel through which ships enter and leave the Port of Chennai. This basically means that you cannot sail a ship in a straight line from Port Blair to enter the Port of Chennai; even though the course of that shipping route is a straight line, your ship will have to turn to the north and then make a U-turn to get into the city's harbour.

The light at this end of the pier is named after the eighth Viceroy of India, Lord Dufferin. Did he contribute to the extension of the port in any way? I don't have an answer to that, but I hope that someone will be able to come up with an explanation of why and how it came to be called the Dufferin Light. The only other nautical connection that I have been able to find is that the first dedicated training ship in India for marine engineering was the RMIS Dufferin! 


1 comment:

capt TRajkumar said...

Thank you-- I am a Retd mariner and sincerely thank you for the post and Picture .Am sharing with all our Ex Dufferin cadets across the globe.
Dufferin was the 1st Training ship of India and has a great long chequered history. The Ship named after Viceroy of India Lord Dufferin 1927 and decommissioned On April 15th 1972.
The Ex Dufferin cadets trained over 2200 officers included 4 Admirals as CNS; inc Adm Ramdas Katari Dufferin roll no 001--and about 500 senior navy officers , rest joining the merchant navy in top positions and in Industry . Some had served in World War 2, Bangla Desh etc THis lifht was commisioned by Madras Port as many seniors were Ex Dufferin and we still hold the memory of our Alma mater highly.Earlier serious efforts were made to convert Dufferin to a maritime museum. However the plan had to be given up due to the prohibitive costs of 'beaching' and maintenance. Hence this great ship, which had nurtured a glorious maritime tradition, had to be consigned to a scrapyard. The ship which was purchased for Rs. 1.25 lakhs in 1927, was sold for Rs. 27 lakhs as scrap. With the "Rajendra" staff and cadets accompanying her, she made her final voyage to the shipbreaker's yard at Darukhana, Bombay on February 2nd 1976.

Salutations to the great training ship we studied on-
The Dufferin may not exist today in steel and timber but in the minds of thousands of her ex-cadets and well wishers, ---- "There will always be a Dufferin".
Regards and thanks
Capt.T.Rajkumar
Roll no 1978 1963 Batch Ex Dufferin cadet
Chennai -India

ps You may like to also read
http://marineobserver.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/indian-merchant-navy-training-establishments-under-british-raj-ts-dufferin/