WATERFRONT AND WARFARE!

WATERFRONT

On Saturday, the 4^th of December, our itinerary took us along the sea shore of Vizag. The long coastline proided us an opportunity to view the sea in its myriad’s moods, blue, calm, choppy,. As we neared Vizag, the shoreline was crowded, with young and old, jostling down the waterfront.

WARFARE!


It was Navy Day and we were there just in time for the celebrations. The excitement of warfare permeated through the city. There were ships, large and small along the coastline. There was gunfire from the ship and helicopters and aircraft flew by, targeting an imaginary enemy. Later, as the sun set, the ships were all illuminated and the bright outlines turned the sea into a magical kingdom. At the same time, the sky burst into a spark of lights and colours.

We learnt that the head office of the Eastern Naval Command is located in Visakhapatnam. Navy Day is celebrated on 4^th December every year to commemorate the 1971 Indian Naval attack on Karachi that won us the war. We were also told that these types of regular drills during peace time helps the Navy to keep fighting fit and inspire the young to join the armed forces.

As we joined the jostling crowd, we spied a massive structure ahead of us, a black boulder, rising from the seashore! It was a decommissioned submarine and had been imaginatively converted into a museum. We were able to board it, look around and learn from the officers about the weaponry, machinery, and life onboard.

The submarine was INS Kursura S20, commissioned on 18^th December, 1969. It was one of the Soviet Foxtrot class submarines. It was decommissioned from service in 2001. The beaching of the submarine at Ramakrishna Beach was an arduous task and it was undertaken by the Naval Ship Research and Design Centre at Visakhapatnam.

Inside the air-conditioned museum, we saw the torpedoes, the main weapon in a submarine. The officers told us that it could carry about 24 of them. The submarine was powered by 3 diesel engines, of 2000 HP each and could go to a depth of 280 meters. There were thousands of different kinds of controls, valves, gauges, displays, meters and so on. The submarine could house 75 crew members and we saw the kitchen, living areas and control rooms, all within the 90 meter span of the submarine.