On 6 January 2020, the Indian Navy authorities officially announced that its Navy patrol vessel “INS Sumedha” found and save the life of a wooden dhow vessel’s personnel. Specifically, onboard the traditional vessel “Al-Hamid”, were 13 Indian crewmembers.
According to the Indian Navy, the Al-Hamid reported that lost its power in the Gulf of Aden, drifting close to the coast of Somalia.
The vessel was first detected by an Indian Naval Helicopter launched from the deck of INS Sumedha, which further confirmed that the ship was stranded.
For the rescue operation, a boarding and a technical team embarked Al-Hamid and render their assistance, while made routine checks to identify the issue that caused the problem.
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Eventually, the technical team resulted that the dhow had been damaged and suffered a broken main engine shaft, something that could not be fixed at sea.
INS Sumedha was then towed the vessel safely away from the Somali coast and provided the personnel fresh water and primary care.
Concluding, the owner of the stranded ship sent another vessel for towing the Dhow to port for repairs.
