Muscat’s Jewel: Kochi ahoy! - The Queen of Arabian Sea is all set to receive the Jewel of Muscat. The wind-powered Oman-built traditional ship sailing from Muscat to Singapore along the ancient maritime route is expected to arrive in Kochi this morning.

The Cochin Port Trust, the navy, and the State and Central governments have arranged a grand reception for the vessel, which started its journey from Port Sultan Qaboos in Muscat on February 16.

According to sources, the wind is favourable and the vessel is on smooth sail.

Today, power boats, sail boats and helicopters of the Indian Navy will shepherd the Jewel to the Cochin port. On Wednesday evening, the State government, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Council for Cultural Research (ICCR) will give it a formal reception.

A seminar on “Maritime Linkages between India and Oman: Old Foundation and New Perspectives” will be organised at Taj Malabar by the Indian Navy. The crew will be treated to various games, ship visits and interaction.

They will also be hosted aboard INS Tarangini, and at Maritime Museum, INS Dronacharya. The vessel will be docked in Kochi for a week.

Adrift

Weathermen had predicted night showers yesterday in south and central Kerala which was likely to change course of the wind slightly. The Jewel of Muscat drifted, about 200 nautical miles west of Kochi, following unfavourable winds, during the course of journey .

The ship is under the care of the Indian Navy ever since it entered the Indian territorial waters. On Thursday, a Navy Dornier from INAS 550 under Naval Air Station Garuda hovered over it and Lieutenant Ankur Khandelwal spoke to Jewel’s Captain Salesh Said Al Jabri on radio “to find out about the crew’s well-being”.

Close on the heels, an Indian Navy warship too paid courtesy call on the Jewel and gifts were exchanged.

Two Malayalees among crew:

Among the Jewel’s 18- member crew are two Keralites — Pushpadas Elamassery and Sajit Valappil — eagerly waiting for the ship’s first port of call. In fact, the Jewel owes its life to carpenters and rope-makers from Kerala, which boast a millennium-odd ‘uru’ (dhow) building
tradition.

Scores of workers from Beypore, near Kozhikode in northern Kerala participated in Jewel’s construction as part of a project funded by the Sultanate of Oman and the Government of Singapore.

After Kochi, the vessel will call at Galle in Sri Lanka, Penang and Melaka in Malaysia before being converted into a museum in Singapore in June when the treasures recovered from the ruins of the ninth-century vessel would find its rightful belonging.

P. Mohamed Ali, Galfar vice-chairman, is organising a dinner at the Le Meridien Kochi on Wednesday in honour of Sayyid Bader bin Hamed Al Busaidi, the secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to celebrate the arrival of the Jewel of Muscat
at Kochi.