9 fishermen saved by ICG off city coast

Around 4 am on Tuesday, ICGS Shaurya, which was patrolling off the city’s coast, received alert from another fishing boat regarding the flooding and stranding of Palani Murugan 150 kilometres in the deep sea. 

By 9 am, the Coast Guard vessel reached the stranded boat, that had nine fishermen on board, which had water ingress in the engine room. 

“The boat had sustained major underwater damage rendering the engines non-operational. The ‘damage control’ party from Shaurya embarked fishing boat ‘Palani Murugan’ in dangerous sea condition at 10.05 am and de-flooding was undertaken utilising the ship’s submersible pumps. Sensing that repairs will be futile at sea, the fishing boat was towed at 11 am,” the release said. 

However, increased flooding and rough sea conditions rendered it unsafe for the crew of the fishing boat to remain in their vessel. The crew requested assistance from the Coast Guard to abandon their vessel at 1 pm. The Coast Guard then rescued all nine crew members and reached Chennai at 8 pm on Tuesday evening.