COMMANDING KATCHALL

 

I took over command of Katchall at Vishakhapatnam on Saturday 19 February 1977. Katchall, constructed in USSR, was classified as a corvette or light frigate with a full load displacement of 1150 tons. Her basic role was anti-submarine for which she was armed with torpedoes and rockets. Her normal speed on the main diesel engine was 16 knots which could be boosted up to 30 by connecting two gas turbines.

Pitaji, my Nana, considered Saturdays auspicious and had chosen that day for his swearing in as a high court judge. I decided to follow that belief and found that it was a good day for another reason. At that time, Saturdays were half working days known traditionally in the Navy as ‘make and mend’ days from old times when sailors were not officially supplied with uniforms and had to make and mend their own. So after taking over the new responsibility, one would have a day and a half to mull over how to proceed with the new task.

Following my scooter accident in Delhi, my head was bandaged but fortunately I was able to put on my cap and be properly dressed for the occasion. My predecessor, Cdr TN Krishnaswamy, escorted me for the ceremony known as Divisions, and other formalities and was then seen off by me. Thereafter I followed the convention of addressing the ship’s company so that all men could get to see and hear the new Captain. I kept my speech short and devoid of sensationalism unlike old Cdr PN ‘Peter’ Mathur who had famously told his sailors, “Mein Khuda to nahin, par aapke liye Khuda se kam bhi nahin hoon!”

I also did not intend to copy Capt Zadu in not having a haircut during my tenure but decided to preserve long, bushy sideburns as my distinctive feature.

On the ship, my second-in-command (XO) was Lt Cdr Vimal Kumar. We took a few days to get to know each other and had a point of difference to start with. He wanted to appoint someone as Mess Secretary but I wanted the job to be given to one Lt CP Sharma who had impressed me. Vimal said that as President of the Mess Committee, it was his prerogative to appoint whoever he wanted. I told him that while normally he would have the freedom to do as he liked but if I felt something should be done, he would have to follow my direction. After that, Vimal and I got on very well and had no further point of discord during my entire tenure. Incidentally, CP now runs a successful travel agency in Delhi.

In the Eastern Naval Command, there were two changes on top shortly after my taking over. Vice Admiral SH Sarma, who was the Fleet Commander when I was Fleet Communcations Officer during the 1971 war, took over as C-in-C and Rear Admiral MK (Mickey) Roy took over as Fleet Commander (FOCEF) from Rear Admiral DS Paintal.

When I took over, Katchall was in dry docks undergoing a refit. Soon, it was time to move out of the docks to a jetty. Our engines were still not ready and the move was planned by using tugs. I thought this was an ideal time to try my hand at using ‘Povrots’, the famous active rudders, which are not really meant for movement on their own as they provide a speed of just 3 knots and are primarily meant to supplement the main rudder. So while the tugs were kept as standby, we made the move by ourselves. The thrill of handling the ship for the first time is an exciting moment for any Captain as once all shore lines have been cast off, the ship is at the mercy of wind and tide and it is imperative that the Captain give the correct orders to handle the ship with precision and elan. In this case it was even more so as it was an unusual move and I was using an unfamiliar equipment. All went well and I got the hang of the Povrots.

Soon the refit was complete and we started sailing for trials. Fortunately, everything went smoothly including the indigenous gas turbine rubber mountings which had caused some officers senior to me to decline this command. On completion of trials, we joined the Eastern Fleet under Adm Roy.

The normal routine for exercises was operating off Vizag Tuesdays to Fridays. Weekends were usually free and I felt it was important to keep the sailors and families busy as Vizag had very few outside attractions. Some of the major activities I recall included a picnic at the famous Simhachalam temple grounds and a Cycle race from Vizag to Bheemunipatnam, a distance of about 40 kms. Families and non-participants were transported by bus to join in the prize distribution headed by Adm Roy followed by a hearty lunch.

Sports are very important for the morale of the ship’s company and we cobbled up some competent teams which acquitted well in Football, Hockey and Volleyball.

Things were running smoothly till later in the year, Vimal proceeded on a spot of leave and the mantle of XO fell on the next officer who was a junior Lieutenant with little experience. Captain L Ramdas, later CNS, was then commanding 32nd Patrol Vessel Squadron at Bombay and brought his ships to Vizag. He made the courtesy call signal to FOCEF, Adm Roy, who at short notice decided to take the call on Katchall. We quickly got together a guard of honour on the Rocket launcher deck and dressed up in formal uniform. Adm Roy arrived followed by Capt Ramdas. On the latter’s arrival, when the guard went through the drill of presenting arms, the bayonets went piercing through the low awning we had omitted to remove. A snigger from Capt Ramdas, embarrassment all around and dirty looks from Adm Roy ensued. Then the Admiral, Capt Ramdas and I adjourned to the Captain’s cabin for drinks. When I rang up for the steward, he arrived in slept-in shirt and shorts and sandals in contrast to our sparkling white tunics, trousers and shoes, medals and swords! On Capt Ramdas’ departure, I got a good dressing down from Adm Roy.

Vimal returned from leave and to get over the incident, I decided to head to Jaipur for a short holiday. On return, Vimal and I got together and vowed we would meticulously ensure that from then on, nothing would go wrong.   

Kavaratti and Katchall share their commissioning date on 23 December. We had sailed for exercises and returned to harbour in the afternoon on that day. We had planned a combined dinner in the evening and were berthed together with Kavaratti alongside the jetty and Katchall next to her. The party was attended by all the VIPs in Vizag including the C-in-C, FOCEF and important civilians. The merrymaking went on till late at night and after the VIPs left, I asked my friends Kailash Kohli, Fleet Operations Officer, and Gulab Israni to adjourn to my cabin to have one for the road. While we were sharing hearty jokes, at about midnight Kailash received a phone call from Adm Roy. Kailash told me that the tug Gaj which had towed a target for our firing practice earlier in the day, had not returned and they had no communication with her. FOCEF wanted a ship to sail, find Gaj and bring it back to harbour. Actually, Kavaratti was the duty ship but she had played the seniority card in berthing and being the inner ship, it would take a lot of time and effort to pull Katchall away and clear the way for Kavaratti, so why not I sail instead! Good idea, and I told the Officer of the Day (OOD) to recall as many sailors and officers as possible and get ready for sea expeditiously.  Kailash said he would like to sail with us and went home to change. I told the OOD that I would try and catch a shuteye and to wake me up when ready. 

At 2 am, I was given a shake and told we were ready. Apart from the duty watch and live-in officers and sailors, we were not able to get many others including senior key personnel on board. On the bridge, there were a number of fresh young faces instead of the usual experienced lot. But they were all keen and we set sail and were out of the harbor by 3 a.m.

With heavy heads, Kailash and I decided we must hit the hay for some time. To play safe, we set course east at slow speed and went to sleep. We got up at first light and taking into account the tidal current, decided our best chance to find Gaj would be by going south at high speed. This worked and in a couple of hours, we spotted Gaj. We closed in and found that Gaj had had a total power failure and had been merrily drifting the whole night. Fortunately, the weather was calm, so there was no damage.

The first thing we did was send them some hot food. Thereafter we took them in tow and reached Vizag safely in the afternoon.

At the debrief, Adm Roy praised us for sailing at such short notice, finding Gaj and bringing it back. He, however, had a question, “Why did you go east initially?”  Some vague waffle mentioning complex tidal currents and circulatory wind directions was mumbled by Kailash and me. Thankfully, the matter was not pursued!

Getting back to our anniversary celebrations, enterprising Vimal had booked Leela Mahal Cinema on Christmas Day for a special show of the movie ‘Kora Kagaz’ starring Jaya Bhaduri and Vijay Anand. We had invited ships’ companies and families of all fleet ships and a good time was had by all.

In January ’78, we had our harbor and sea inspections which went off well. Thereafter, Adm Roy took Kavaratti and Katchall to Calcutta where we were given a great welcome. Calcutta has always been a good port for ships to visit and in this case it was specially so given Adm Roy’s local contacts. Of note was a dance performance by Tanushree, daughter-in-law of the famous Uday Shankar. I was so impressed by the former that I wanted our daughter to be named after her but Akhila prevailed with Shumita!

Visit completed, both ships sailed out. In the meantime, a warning was received that a cyclonic storm was developing in the Bay of Bengal. Kavaratti connected gas turbines and headed for Vizag at high speed but for some reason which I do not recall, perhaps lack of availability or a leak, Katchall was short of fuel and we could not use gas turbines for fear of running out of oil. So we were confined to a maximum speed of 16 knots on diesel engine only.

The night was uneventful but in the morning, the storm was in full blow. The sea was very rough and the wind hurricane strong. Katchall was bobbing up and down with the bows pitching up 25 degrees, a mass of 1150 tons of steel suspended at that angle for a second before plunging back into the giant waves which would go flying over the bridge and the mast. With each downward dive into the sea, the ship shivered and shuddered as if it would break! Visibility was very low made worse by rain and sea spray all over and the radar showed nothing but whorls of the cyclone. Scenes described in Nicholas Monsarrat’s novel ‘The Cruel Sea’ seemed to be playing in real life reminding one of how brutal the sea can be. At a time like this, the Captain is in a most unenviable position: he is virtually alone on the ship which is not even a tiny speck on the vast ocean, yet he is solely responsible for the ship and the sailors for whom, as Peter Mathur had said, he is ‘Khuda’!

Almost all of the ship’s company were seasick. I, who as a cadet used to be desperately sick and curse myself for joining the Navy, could now not afford that luxury and was in full charge of my faculties proving that responsibility is the greatest antidote to seasickness. I calmly sat on the Captain’s chair keeping an eye on things and hoping for the best.

I must have dozed off for a while because when I looked up after sometime, I found there was no one on the bridge. The duty officer, the helmsman and the signalman were nowhere to be seen. The ship, instead of facing the waves, seemed to be rolling excessively. I sprang from my chair and looked at the gyro which showed the course as correct. Something made me look at the magnetic compass and I found that instead of steering south, we were heading west towards land. Obviously, the gyro had failed. I grabbed the wheel and brought the ship around 180 degrees to head east. I didn’t know how long we had been sailing towards land and disaster, so I decided to keep steering away from the coast for two hours at least.

Meanwhile, the duty personnel who had all been terribly sick trooped in one by one. They were in such a miserable state I couldn’t even scold them! After a couple of hours, we resumed our course southward. By night, the weather had calmed a bit and I decided to keep the ship on a safe course and get some sleep.

Waking up at dawn, I saw the weather had cleared considerably and the gyro and the radar were functioning correctly. We found we had fetched up farther south and east than estimated and altered course to return to Vizag.

Meanwhile, I received my letter of appointment as Directing Staff, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Cdr VK Nagpal was appointed CO Katchall to relieve me.

In early March, the fleet sailed to observe Families’ Day which was my final outing in command. By this time, Adm Roy had become fond of Katchall and decided to fly his flag on my ship though I was not the seniormost CO which is generally the norm for the flagship. The day went off very well and my command came to a successful end.

In my final interview with Adm Roy, he expressed satisfaction with my performance but for a small caveat. He said, “Ravi, you have done very well but I only want to say that you should never lose bearing”. This term is normally signaled to a ship which falls behind its usual station. But in the context Adm Roy used it, I have often wondered if he had a deeper meaning!

All that remained for me was to hand over to Cdr Nagpal and pack up for Wellington.