Tag: shipyard

Everybody is building ships and boats (2)

The little Indian town of Mandvi in the state of Gujarat at the border to Pakistan supplies the ports around the Arabian Sea with wooden boats. In the time of 20.000 unit container ships these old fashioned boats are an anachronism. The hulk of the ships is built from thick beams, mechanical tools do not go much further than electric drilling machines or chain saws and security measures are non-existent. Visitors are welcome and free to climb around in the construction sites. During a chat with one of the owners of the shipyard I even was offered tea from the tea wallah.

Overview of the shipyard
The skeleton is finished and the outside is covered with thick boards
Inside the hulk is stabilized by wooden beams
An additional heavy wooden beam is added to the skeleton.
Better to take off the slippers to avoid to get them damaged
A little gap is left until the boat is finished to let workers in and out
A boat is painted and finished. The sailors move in and wait for a high tide to depart

Everybody is building ships and boats

The art of building wooden ships has all but disappeared. However, in some countries wooden ships are used as tourist attraction and sometimes even for transporting cargo (see post of 26.9.20222). In Oman, the town of Sur is famous for shipbuilding. The work is done by indian or pakistani craftsmen. A similar place, where big cargo ships like those which can be seen in the old port of Dubai are built, is in Mandvi, in India. I will show some pictures from there later

The typical arab dhows built in Sur are now mainly used as pleasure yachts and tourist boats
There is no wood in Oman, it has to come from elsewhere
The shipyards also do maintenance on old ships, mainly by sealing the joints
Security measures are few, most of the work is done by hand
Even the tools are sharpened by hand