"Many times, we feel that nothing's going to happen to me. My sea career is going to be absolutely smooth, as ever. But, it does not happen. So, I'm going to quote one small incidence...or what I've encountered.
1981, I was master on an Iranian ship, called Iran-Ehsaan, and we had brought the cargo from..uh, Europe, to be discharged, at various ports of Iran. So, we arrived in Bandar Abbas, the first port of Iran, and by that time, the war between Iran and Iraq has erupted, and there was a solid shelling, and actual fight was going on. So, we were told by the Iranian Ar...Navy to...that you have to wait, for this convoy...their naval convoy and they will accompany us through the Shatt al-Arab to go to Bandar Khomeini, which was the ultimate port of Iran. And, as you geographically see that on the west side of the shatt Al arab there is Iraq, and on the east coast there is Iran. So, we were all well prepared to...all sort of emergency or exigencies, because this Iraq used to fire...this..uh, heat seeking missiles and...just to damage, mostly the engine room parts and subsequently you'll find the ship getting flodded with water and there'd be hardly any time...you may sink in 5-6 minutes. So, while going to Bandar Khomeini, luckily...it did not happen. But while on the way back, in the convoy we were at number 3 that was Iran-Ahsaan and at number 2 was Iran-Rezwan, which was mostly manned by the Indian officers.....and few Jordanians. So, early in the morning, as we started coming out from Bandar Khomeini, and just entered into Shatt al-Arab, just around 4:30 or quarter to five, where you could just see the light, twilight, the...we could hear the big bang and the ship number 2, which was Iran-Rezwan, was hit, by that Iraqi missile, and it was... through and through that missile, we could see the piercing through, and the ship tilted and within a spans of, just few minutes, the ship was about to sink. So, luckily...like we have prepared, so as the other ships as well as, so suddenly I saw this, all those people with their, the crew and the officers, floating with their life jackets in the water. And shouting for help. And naturally being number 3 and the closest, it is my prior duty to lower the life boats, which we already were ready. So, the experience was that, I lowered the life boat myself, and we could just go across, just a few yards and luckily just happened, that we could save the lives of this Iran-Rezwan crew and ahh..uhh.. fortunately since we had the knowledge of this we could retrieve most of them, except one fellow, oiler, which was...he could not swim, and he was drifted quite away, we couldn't rescue him, but other than that, we could rescue all of them, and one second engineer, his wife and child, there is a very...I'm very...still today I take that pride, in me that we could save them and till today that lady sends me the Rakhi, and I feel so proud about it, so... at least with that great feeling, I can safely retire and that... even today, when I think of it, I f..fee..feel, that as if that incidence happened just yesterday.
So, what I want to share, that...this message, is..the thing that; be prepared, for any kind of emergencies or exigencies, that may occur in your life, anytime.
Thank you." - Captain Anil D. Athale
