Sailing back in time
When the historic Indo-Lanka ferry service began in 1914, there were two ships that did the 45-minute trip between Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka’s North and Danushkodi in India’s South. They were named “Irvin” and “Goschen”.
A cyclone grounded “Goschen” in 1964. The other, renamed “Ramanjuam”, continued transporting passengers until its last trip on October 26, 1984. And for those entire two eventful decades, S. V. Emmanuel was its General Manager.
Now 83, Mr. Emmanuel is retired and lives in Kotahena. “There were so many people who would come that we would often run out of seats,” he recalls. “Jaffna people would come in vans so they can arrive early morning and secure a seat.
Others would fight to get on.”
The Ramanujam could carry 800 passengers. Half of the seats were reserved for Indian Origin or Malaiyaha Tamils who were forcibly repatriated to India under the Srima-Shastri Pact which came into effect in 1964. Of the rest, 200 went to Indian tourists and 200 to Sri Lankan and foreign tourists and merchants. Friends and family that crowded the pier to bid the repatriated citizens goodbye in tears made operations difficult, Mr. Emmanuel said.
Former President J.R. Jayewardene stopped the ferry alleging that the LTTE were using it to smuggle weapons. Emmanuel scoffed at the idea: “They never bothered with us. It’s such a shame.
The ship just rotted. Throughout the period that the ferry operated, small boats continued to function illegally. The LTTE didn’t need to use the ferry at all.”
These small fishing boats would take people to India to sell coconut oil, visit family or simply watch the latest Kollywood movie. “India had not yet liberalised so people would even smuggle TVs and electronics from here to there,” Emmanuel said. “Those boats continued to function, and the navy turned a blind eye to them. The navy and the maritime border were not like it is today.”
In the mid-1980s, refugees who had fled the civil war to India started returning by boat. Hundreds were dying at sea when these capsized so the government set sail a new ship to help bring them back. By 1995, this special service was also stopped and all legal voyages across the Palk Strait came to a halt.
Mr. Emmanuel speculates that political influence must have led to the Kankesanthurai-Nagapattinam ferry now being given priority. The travel time from Thalaimannar is much shorter and railway connections make it more convenient to get to big cities.
“It must be political,” he said. “They even tried to start a Tuticorin-Colombo ferry, which was a failure. It just makes the most sense to operate from Thalaimannar and I hope they will do so soon because the benefit to the country will be great.”