COAST GUARD RESCUES 21 MERCHANT MEN
ON HIGH SEAS
The Indian Coast Guard
has rescued 21 merchantmen on high seas yesterday, 370 nautical
miles off Port Blair. The Indian Coast Guard received a maritime
distress call of a flooding vessel MV Jubilee with 21 crew members
onboard. The crew members planning to abandon the vessel at 1130
hrs on Jul 24, 2003. The vessel was within Indian search and rescue
region and Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Port Blair was
directed to respond. The Rescue Centre quickly identified potential
ships in areas and diverted MV Chahaya Star, the nearest ship.
While the ship sank, all crew have been rescued by 1430 hrs. The
vessels had crew from Myanmar, Indian, China, Bangladesh, Srilanka
and Indonesia and are being brought to Kolkata
