Mahakalapara: A French cargo ship Velda had sunk in Bay of Bengal in 1832 off the coast here in Kendrapara district. The sunken ship has now become an impediment to the movement of boats as the wreckage is yet to be retrieved from sea, a report said Sunday. The French cargo ship carrying food grains, sugar, liquor, wine and other goods had sunk near Madali sea mouth, some distance away from Hukitola Island under the present Gahirmatha marine sanctuary area. The ship was on its way to Haldia port in Kolkata when it drifted from its route due to the inclement weather and got stuck after hitting a large heap of sand under the sea. The sailors tried to rescue the ship but in vain as it started sinking. About 187 years have passed since the mishap, but its wreckage is yet to be retrieved. The iron mast of the French ship is still visible when the sea water recedes. It gets submerged in sea water when there is high tide.
Notably, the Madali sea mouth under Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is the main entry point to the sea. The wreckage has been posing danger to the fishing boats and trawlers, and tourists visiting the Hukitola island. There have been instances of trawlers and boats colliding with sunken ships in the sea, said some fishermen of Jambu, Tubi, and Kajalapatia areas. Boats of local fishermen often meet with accidents while venturing into the sea for fishing or while returning to shore, fishermen Shaktipad Mirdha, Shankar Mandal, Gurupad Mandal, Gourahari Das, and Fani Mandal of Jambu area said. It is pertinent to mention that most of Odisha was reeling under the grip of great famine during that time and people were dying of starvation in thousands.
The British government had imported food grains and other essentials like edible oil, coconuts, molasses and flattened rice through Velda. The ship was on its way to Jambu island where it was to unload the essentials. But as ill luck would have it, the ship sank mid-sea, locals said. The then-British rulers had tried to ascertain the real reason behind the capsize. They discovered a large sand island at some distance from the place of mishap. They found a large sand dune on the false point of the island and constructed a lighthouse on it. The construction of the lighthouse helped foreign cargo ships and local ships. Locals said mishaps declined in the sea after the construction of the lighthouse. The foreign and local ships are able to track their routes and move accordingly after the construction of the lighthouse. The country achieved independence in 1947 but the Union government never made any effort to trace or retrieve the wreckage of the ship. Later, some unscrupulous persons and pirates stole the valuable parts of the ship. A well-known scuba diver Sabir Bux tried to probe the sunken ship and dived into the deep sea near Madali sea mouth in 2009. However, the then forest ranger Mihir Kumar Pattnaik registered a case against Bux as he had undertaken the exploration without the permission of the Forest department.
Since the ship is posing a threat to trawlers and boats, various local outfits and fishermen have been demanding that the administration take safety measures to get rid of the wreckage in order to ward off accidents of boats, ships, and trawlers. They have also suggested that the spot can be marked with floating warning signs around it. The wrecked ship should be retrieved and kept as a showpiece at Hukitola Island to draw tourists. Contacted, environmentalist Samarendra Mahali said that Madali sea mouth has stood as the silent witness to the sinking of the French ship in the sea. He said efforts should be made to ascertain the real reason behind the sinking Velda as is being done in the case of the famous Titanic that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912.