A Ship At the Harbour is safe, But That’s Not What Ships Are Made For!
They say that every seaman is not only a Navigator, but a merchant and also a soldier. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor and such is the life of the naval officers of our country. The Director, Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, Faculty members and the students of Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School recently had the honour and privilege to visit the Goa Shipyard.
On the 5th of February, the engineering aspirants of STD XI of Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School were elated to have an opportunity to visit the Goa Shipyard Pvt. Ltd., India’s youngest and yet best performing Shipyard.
After a fun filled half hour in the bus, we reached Goa Shipyard, where we were warmly welcomed by Mr. Major H.R.Madhusudan . We were shown presentations on how Goa Shipyard is the fastest growing Shipyard in the Indian subcontinent, and how it has received several prestigious awards by the Ministry Of Defence for its commitment to excellence and nothing less!
Following the presentation, we were taken to take a sneak peak into the various facilities and ship building procedures which took place at the Shipyard starting with the Steel preparation, which as told to us, was essentially the foundation of all the ship building activities. The designs are loaded on computers and the steel plates are then cut as per the blue print using plasma cutters, not forgetting to mention each plate being meticulously numbered for systematic assembling which is the next stage of the process. Assembling was where we saw how the plates were welded together, by larger than life machines. As told by the very accommodative and jovial in charge there Mr. Joshi, AGM HR & A, that all the parts of the ship go through four stages of quality checks which are performed by Goa Shipyard as well as External regulatory authorities to ensure safety and quality at the same time. Mr. Joshi explained about how crucial is the C.G. /C.B. ( i.e. Centre of Gravity/ Centre of Buoyancy) balance in Ship Design and being an iterative process it is quite challenging. He also highlighted how ballasting takes care of the C.G. balance.
The highlight of the trip was when all the students were taken aboard Samudra Shiksha, a one of a kind training vessel built and designed by Goa Shipyard for ONGC. We were given a tour of the vessel and shown presentations on how the crew members were trained to combat emergencies such as fire and explosions. What was particularly intriguing was the presentation on how rescue operations are actually conducted. It truly gave us all an insight on how the crew manages stress and pressure in emergency situations.
Following this, the commanding officer of Goa Shipyard, Commander Dhaiya, Samudra Shiksha, showed us a video of how 4000 – 5000 ton ships are docked, undocked and lifted using cutting edge technology from Netherlands.
We were then taken to the canteen for a quick lunch, which was an experience in itself as students and our Director, Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, faculty member Mrs. Manali Varerkar, enjoyed their sumptuous meal together!
We of course, have VPD Sir to thank for providing us this one in a million chance to visit the Goa Shipyard. We take pride in their achievements as citizens of the country.
This trip was an excellent means of informing all the budding engineers in our batch of what truly goes into building the engineering marvels that serve as our country’s first line of defence!
Special thanks to Major HR Madhusudhan, AGM HR & A Jitendra Joshi, Deputy Manager Tech Services Gajanan Bawane, Deputy Manager Administration Sawlo Pawar, Assistant Manager Administration Commander Dhaiya, Samudra Shiksha.
– Prepared by Gaurav Awasthi, Student of STD XI, MAHSS