Duckworks Magazine - The Fishing Boats of India

The Fishing Boats of India

By Joel Fleischer - Marquette, Michigan - USA

In October I went to southern India and spent the next month traveling to churches in that area helping to train Lutheran pastors there. As we prepared to return home in November, we had several days to do the tourist thing in and around the city of Chennai, in the Tamil Nadu state. Of course, we had to go to the beach and see the Bay of Bengal on the Indian Ocean. When we arrived, I was amazed to see that the beach was not covered with sunbathers. It was covered with fishing boats and boat motors.

The boats ranged from twenty to thirty feet long, and reminded me of the pangas that fish off the coasts of Mexico. The boats were wood construction and brightly painted. Many looked to have been professionally built, but some of the boats were nothing more than large pieces of wood lashed together, carved out to a vague boat shape, and left unpainted.

The biggest fishing boat on the beach.

A typical Indian fishing boat, around 25 feet to 30 feet long, with a very shallow draft.

Muscle Beach? This man was about five feet tall, and all muscle, and insisted that we take his picture.

Oars? Rudders? These oars ranged from 6 – 12 feet long.

Guarding the fishing gear.

In the afternoon, fishing boats line the beaches and fishing nets and motors are shrouded with polytarps.

Note the two “boats” on the right. I’m not sure if the fishermen that use those boats are brave or just desperate.

Todd Ohlmann with some of the nicer examples of local fishing boats behind him.

The week after the Tsunami of December 26, 2004, Pastor Ohlmann flew to India to bring financial relief to people affected by the disaster. Three of the families that he met with told him the following story:

The three men of these families have been fishermen for many years and have built up the most successful fishing business in the village. They pooled their resources and bought a boat that they could take further out to sea and all three could fish from. They also corporately own four different sized nets to catch different types of fish. They had been very successful by the standards of this village. They lived in brick built homes instead of the common thatched homes that most in the village called home.

After the Tsunami the Indian government constructed emergency shelters. In some cases, the emergency shelters were better than what they lost, so that, more than two years later many people are still living in the shelters. (click image to enlarge)

On the day of the Tsunami they had been out early, around 4:00 AM to fish. They had been out about 3-4 Km from shore and were heading in with their catch for the morning. The first tsunami wave came in around 6:30 AM and rolled their boat over. All three men were tossed overboard but managed to climb onto the top of the boat. This happened two more times as the 2nd and 3rd waves came in. Amazingly enough, they all managed to climb on to the upside down boat and hang onto ropes. This is not big fishing boat but rather more like an over sized canoe, perhaps 8ft wide and 25ft long. The boat rode the final wave past the shore and into the line of trees some 500 or more yards past the current shore line. Witnesses from the village said the wave was more than 25ft high. All three men were bruised and scared but alive. Their nets and boat motor were destroyed.

Their boat, amazingly enough, only suffered minor surface damage that they have already managed to repair with fiberglass patching. Their motor will need to be replaced at a cost of around $1,200 and their four nets vary in price due to the types of nets for various sizes and types of fish but average to around $600.00 each. This comes to a total amount of around $3,600. This, remember is the source of livelihood for three (what used to be anyway) prosperous fishermen families. They have no insurance, so they will have to start from scratch and rebuild. I asked them how they would begin to fish again and they said for the time being they would only be able to go out as far as they could safely row the boat with paddles and they would try to salvage one of the 100's of the ruined and tangled nets that litter the beaches and tree line.

The day before we left India, we traveled to the city of Mamalapuram, south of Chennai. There are major archeological sites there with monolithic temples and even a lighthouse, dating back 1400 years. And, of course, the beach right next to the temple was covered with fishing boats.

The beach at Mamalapuram.

Is that a bikini? All of the vehicles in India are painted in bright colors, and the boats are no exception. Note the long propeller shafts on the outboards.