22 sailors rescued from flooded boats in 3 days off Gujarat coast

Twenty-two persons have been rescued by the Coast Guard and fishermen off the Gujarat coast after three boats got flooded in as many days, officials said on Monday. In the latest incident, on Monday afternoon, all 10 men on board a flooded cargo vessel were rescued by fishermen off the coast of Porbander, said local fishermen.

The wooden merchant vessel 'Rehman' had set off for Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates from Okha in Devbhoomi- Dwarka district with a crew of 10, and water gushed in a few hours later off Porbandar coast after the hull got breaches, prompting crew to sound a distress signal, they said.

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The signal alerted a nearby fishing boat which rescued the 10-member crew and brought them ashore.

On Sunday, the Coast Guard had rescued six fishermen stranded on a flooded boat, Rajlaxmi, in the Arabian Sea, 41 nautical miles away from the Gujarat coast and close to the International Maritime Boundary Line(IMBL) with Pakistan, said an ICG release.

On getting a distress call, ICG ship 'Shoor' diverted to help the fishermen on board the flooded boat having a "six inch crack in the hull", it said.

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The Coast Guard personnel pumped out water from the tilting vessel and "sealed the cracks using damage control equipment". After making the boat upright and starting the engine, "the fishermen were directed to proceed to nearest harbour Jakhau for permanent repairs", said the release.

In a similar operation on late Saturday night, six fishermen stranded on a flooded boat in the Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard.

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The Coast Guard operations centre here received a distress call on Saturday evening following which its team, which was on a routine patrol, rushed to provide assistance to the fishermen, a release issued by the ICG said.

The boat, named 'Vismita', with six fishermen on board, got flooded, following which its engines stopped working some 24 nautical miles from Porbandar. "The Coast Guard ship C-445, which was on a routine patrol, was immediately diverted to render assistance to the distressed boat," the release said.

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Technical personnel of the rescue team stopped flooding by plugging the crack in the boat hull and then carried out de-flooding, it said. The boat was then safely towed to Porbandar harbour by another fishing vessel under the escort of the Coast Guard ship, it added.