AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 216 of 332 INS Magar was originally launched in 1945 as LST 3011 for the Royal Navy. She was renamed HMS Avenger in 1947 and was sold to the Royal Indian Navy in 1949, being renamed Magar in 1951. I joined INS Magar as a Sub-Lieutenant for award of Watch Keeping Certificate (WKC) in Feb 1975 post my Technical Courses. It was a steam ship with reciprocating engines, one of the few still in service in the Navy then. Her battle speed was 8 knots. She was never in a hurry to reach her destination. Used to sail at a sedate speed of 5 knots. At night the engine beats lulled one into sleep like travelling in a steam powered railway engines of yore. Once the ship was returning to Visakhapatnam from West Coast after deployment. On the Southern Coast of Sri Lanka, there are two off shore reefs - Little and Great Basses with light houses on them. The area is known for strong currents. Magar at 5 knots engine speed was making good only 3 knots because of a two knot current from East. From 0400h to well past midnight, we were able to see the lights. In April, the ship was informed about the task of transporting buffaloes to Campbell Bay. The ship’s tank space was readied for the purpose with make shift cattle pens with hay on the tank space steel deck so that the cattle didn’t injure themselves in the event of turbulent seas. Bay of Bengal is quite quixotic as regards sea state. I was the junior most executive officer and nominated as LO for the buffaloes. One fine morning the ship embarked 200 of them. Fifty at a time were driven onto Vizag Port Trust (VPT) Harbour ferry which had a ramp similar to Magar. The ferry thereafter brought these bewildered bovines to the ship berthed alongside. The ship’s bow doors were opened, the vehicle ramp was lowered down and it was a ramp to ramp transfer. Quite a lot were terribly scared. They were accompanied by a good number of (cow) buffalo-boys who managed to cajole them in Telugu to embark the ship without a stampede. A Veterinarian also accompanied them. This went on till late evening. This reminded me of animals embarking Noah’s Ark. The ship was to sail the next evening for Campbell Bay stopping at Port Blair first. The next morning we got a personal signal from the C-in-C, quote” WOULD APPRECIATE A KG OF PURE GHEE”, unquote. Being the LO, junior most and under trainee to boot, the CO sent me scurrying to organise this. I approached the ship’s Master Chief Bosun’s mate who looked after the cargo of any kind. He looked at me, smiled and told me “Sir, Aap ka naam Bhagwan Krishen ka doosra naam hain. Aap bansuri bajaoge thab bhi kuch nahin hone wala” He took me down to the tank space where the ‘buffalos’ were housed and showed me practically that all 200 of them were males. I beat a