Somebody might recall this boat mail from the Ashe murder case, which I had written about, for that was the train Ashe and his wife boarded at Maniyachi, after
which they were shot by Vanchi Iyer in June 1911. Maniyachi incidentally was a busy
railhead junction, at which incoming passengers from Tinnevelly changed for the
Boat Mail Train from Tuticorin. But then again it is no ordinary train and has
quite a history.
The Boat mail express, also known as the Indo-Ceylon
Express, was operated by Southern Railways. At first it plied between Egmore
and Tuticorin, then it was between Egmore and Dhanushkodi but now runs between
Egmore and Rameswaram. Why was it called the boat mail? Because the passengers
changed over to a boat ferry from the Indian end of the route in order to cross
the seas to Ceylon. Until around 1914, steam mail ships plied between Tuticorin
and Colombo constituting a 16-18 hour voyage across the 170 miles separating
the two countries. So it was indeed an arduous trip, 22 hours by train (443
miles), then the changeover to the ship, covering in total two days.
Just imagine the scene in those early days at the turn the
20th century – Tuticorin had a three Brahmin hotels at Melur, as
well as a number of other hotels and choultries for the travelers. Special
trains took upper class passengers from the station to the pier. Spencer’s
& Co provided refreshments and fresh copies of Madras Mail & Madras
times and travel goods. If the incoming ship was late, Spencer’s served
breakfast in the train. The BISI steamer left daily at 5PM after the passengers
were taken from the pier on an AMC launch, a 45 minutes journey. Plantation laborers
incidentally had to do their emigration checks at Tataparai before boarding the
steamer.
This also is where a character named VO Chidambaram Pillai or
VOC steps in - As the Swadeshi movement picked up steam, VOC established
Swadeshi navaai sangam (Swadeshi steam navigation company) in the year 1906 to
put an end to British monopoly in shipping and to help the Indian merchants who
were treated unfairly at the hands of British India Steam Navigation company. He
leased vessels from the Shah Line Shipping Company but the arrangement failed
after a while. Later he tried to work with a Ceylon based company and as that
also proved unsatisfactory decided to buy his own. To this end some 4000 company shares were sold
and purchased the S.S. Gallia which was delivered in May 1907 and the second,
S.S. Lowoe in June 1907 (The ships were designed to carry 1400 men and 4000
gunny bags of load). All this affected the BISI and repressive measured were
initiated. A fare war started and this destroyed the SSNC, which was liquidated
in 1911. The SS Gallia was acquired by the BISI and VOC ended up in jail for
sedition. All this was perhaps due to the new move to open up the Adams bridge
link proposed by the tea estate owners.
Years passed by and with the intent to reduce the vagaries
of the sea voyages, attention was focused at the Adam’s bridge or Ram Sethu and
trains were planned to run until Dhanushkodi, the end point near the Palk Strait.
But this successful alternative was chosen after a deliberation over two. In
fact at that time, the South Indian Railway considered constructing a 12 mile bridge
across the shallow waters (3-6 feet) and sand shoals and reefs known as Rama
Sethu (Adam's Bridge) between India and Sri Lanka.
That story about the Adams Bridge (tombolo) sounded
interesting, so I checked it out. It appears that the gap was passable on foot
upto the 15th century, and local tradition affirms that the link was above sea
level until it broke in a cyclone in 1480. Geological as well as flora and
fauna survey also attest to a historic land link, even after the landmasses had
separated and a point to be noted is that this strait was not used by the ocean going
Chinese Ming (and earlier) ships, which sailed around Ceylon.
But let’s get back to the train link and we note an 1898
proposal from Donald Ferguson which vaguely alluded to it - To connect the Ceylon railway system with that
of India by way of Adam's Bridge and the Pamban-Madura extension, a line will
have to be constructed from Madawachchi (north of Anuradhapura) to the western
point of the island of Mannar. The connecting-link over Adam's Bridge, a very
costly work, will, however, only be made if the Imperial, Indian and Ceylon
Governments come to an agreement with regard to the share of the expense to be
borne by each.
The formal proposal to extend a railway line upto Pamban was
made in 1899, following which the line from Madurai to Mandapam was opened in
1902. In the second phase, the line from Pamban to Rameswaram was opened in
1906. The gap between Mandapam and Pamban was traversed by sea Boats. Later, the
line between Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi covering a distance of about 11½ miles
was completed and the link finally reached the Indian mainland’s end by 1908.
Around 1908 the Egmore station was constructed – Quoting
Saritha - Distinct in style and structure, the Madras Egmore Station, completed
in 1908, in Mughal style - an ornate structure in brick, rimmed with granite
and sandstone, with several towers capped by domes in the shape the Mughals had
brought with them from Persia and Central Asia.
By 1914 the clamor from the rich and powerful Lankan estate
owners, for a faster connection had increased. The boat and rail link, not
commercially viable, had to be converted to a fast rail link. But the cost was
prohibitive. Neville Priestly, MD or the Southern Railway, did not believe they
could generate the required amount of traffic on the rail link and decided on
for the first phase of linking Rameshwaram – the Pamban Bridge.
The technical complication in acquiring a rolling lift
drawbridge was dealt with by an experienced American company the Scherzer
Rolling Lift Bridge Company of Chicago which manufactured the bridge based on a
Cantilever Scherzer Rolling Lift technique. The local contract was with Head, Wrightson
& Co. Ltd. of Thornaby-on-Tees, UK. Most of the workforce were Moplahs from
Malabar, presumably Khalasis.
Carter records - The workmen were Moplahs—natives of the
Malabar Coast, Western India—who had had little, if any, experience in bridge
building, but what they lacked in knowledge they made up in main strength and
activity. The pneumatic riveters rather stumped them at first, and much of the
early work had to be done over; but the Moplahs soon got the hang of it and
then they did good work at the rate of two hundred and fifty rivets a day for
each squad. Other labor consisted of Eurasian and Tamil foremen, engine men,
mechanics, rivet inspectors, painters, and boatmen. The laborers consisted of
both women and men, for when it comes to hard work the Hindu believes in equal
rights. Everybody worked ten hours a day, Sundays as well as week days, except
when an occasional Mohammedan feast caused an interruption. During the
Mohammedan fast of thirty days, the Moplahs knocked off at four o'clock. They
had to do it because they abstained rigidly from eating, drinking, smoking, or
chewing from sunrise to sunset. Under these conditions eight hours' work was
all they could stand. Hindu feast days didn't count, for the Moplahs paid no
attention to them.
In the history of railways in South India the year 1914 was therefore
a landmark. The Boat
The second phase of linking Dhaushkodi with Talaimannar was
dropped and the railway engineer finally concluded - The gap between India and Ceylon could, therefore, be bridged, and the
Indio-Ceylon Railway connection could be provided at a cost to India of
$9,333,334, or in round figures for a sum well within $10,000,000, as compared
with $100,000,000 under the scheme for a viaduct across Adams Bridge.
Can you believe that there was a kind of unregulated service
even before this? Small boats and steamers used to take passengers to Mannar
from Rameshwaram. The men then walked from Mannar to Matale (all of 150 miles),
the nearest train station on the Ceylon side. In 1885 the British nationalized
the route and banned all light vessel passenger traffic. Anyway let’s get back
to the second decade of the 20th century.
Three steamers (Curzon, Elgin and Hardinge, named after
three viceroys) were employed on the ferry service, built on the Clyde with
Parsons turbines and Yarrow boilers, in Scotland to steam through in an hour
and a half. They were later replaced by the Irwin and Goschen. Electric light was
installed in these vessels and electrically-driven fans assisted in ventilation.
The accommodation for a large number of third class Indian passengers was well
arranged and a cabin for them is provided on the lower deck aft. Provision for
carrying cattle and sheep was available on the after part of the main deck, and
arrangements are made forward on the main deck for the carriage of motor cars…
the lifting appliances have been so arranged that motor cars can be lifted on
board by the ship’s own derricks and carried on the fore deck...As people of repute and foreigners traveled by this train, the
boat mail was equipped with a canteen on wheels. It also was the first train to
have a vestibule.
AC Ardeshir writing for the Indian Motor news in 1920, summarizes
- The Ceylon Boat mail journey appeared
rather dull till we arrived at Mandapam Camp at 5 p.m., where all the
passengers to Ceylon were examined by a doctor and given a passport. Here the
mainland of India practically terminated, being connected with the Island of
Rameshwaram by an exceedingly pretty roller bridge, a mile and a half long
constructed by the South Indian Railway over the Pamban Channel. The views
hereafter were glorious—the magnificent ocean sights, the soft sandy beaches,
and the clusters of babul, tamarind and palm trees mingled with the distant
glimpses of the tall gopurams of the great Rameshwar Temple. At about 6 p.m., slowly
the train reached Dhanuskhodi, the terminus, going right up to the pier, where
a few yards off, the boat was awaiting our arrival. We alighted and our luggage
was transshipped free of charge. Within fifteen minutes the boat steamed off,
leaving the melancholy shores and speeding onwards towards Talaimannar. We covered
the short distance of 22 miles within two hours. The sea was very calm. The
Customs officers pestered the visitors with a scrutiny of their luggage. We
were again transferred to the train which awaited our arrival on the pier. This
route must be considered a great blessing as compared with the old
Tuticorin-Colombo route, which necessitated a sea journey of twelve hours.
Trimurti provides an Indian perspective in his book ‘Chennaivasi’,
emphasizing the messy parts, the coal soot that settled over passengers, the
number of pilgrims amongst the passengers and the eagerness to visit the temple
at Rameshwaram. They record the ferry journey to Talaimannar as a two hour
torture of sailing through choppy waters, alighting there and then the wait for
the overnight train to Colombo. By then Ceylon had become SriLanka and India
had become independent.
In 1952 the train was to figure in a murder mystery – that
of businessman Alavander and this was the much written about and talked about
Alavandar case. That my friends is another fascinating forensic story involving
Prabhakar & Devika menon, the people responsible for his murder, to be
retold another day…
And so that long rail journey to the lands’ end continued on
for decades until nature’s fury destroyed the clackety clak routine. That was
in 1964, when the great Rameshwaram cyclone occurred and a Dhanushkodi
passenger train was swept off the tracks by giant waves killing all of its 110 occupants.
Ironically the first survivors of the cyclone in the island took shelter in the
railway station! Prior to the cyclone, Dhanushkodi had a railway station, a
customs office, post and telegraphs office, two medical institutions, a railway
hospital, a panchayat union dispensary, a higher elementary school and port
offices. But after the cyclone, nothing was left and Dhanushkodi was turned into
a ghost town. The connection to Sri Lanka continued by ferry between Rameshwaram
and Talaimannar till the early 90’s after which traffic was again disrupted due
to the LTTE affair. On the Sri Lankan side the Mannar line was out of service after
the Mannar Bridge was demolished by the fighters.
In 2011 the ferry service between Tuticorin abnd Colombo was
restarted, this time on a grand scale with a modern ferry ship named Scottia
Prince, owned by Flamingo Liners. But after a few months, this ran into
financial difficulties, low traffic, high operating costs etc and ceased
operations.
A bridge across the Palk Strait is still a pipe dream, and
there are many obstacles to the plan, supposedly objections from religious groups
coupled with a doubt over its financial viability.
Meanwhile, IRCON were entrusted with the contract to rebuild
the tracks and infrastructure on the Lankan side and that part has been
completed. Nowadays we have train 6701 up and train 6702 down, plying between Rameshwaram
to Madras, restored. The ferry service to Talaimannar is yet to restart, but
that could happen soon after the piers are repaired, and then we would have succeeded
in reestablishing the vintage 1914 boat mail route…
References
Colonialism and modernisation; history and development of
southern railway a case study – SR Saritha
Chennaivasi By T.S. Tirumurti
Southern India: Its History, People, Commerce, and
Industrial Resources By Arnold Wright
The Technical World Magazine, Volume 22 Pg 60-65
Boston evening Transcript – April 4th 1914 –
Article about Pamban Bridge opening
Pics - Wikipedia - thanks to all uploaders...
6 comments:
Paul Theraux in his Great Railway Bazaar makes this journey and writes a lovely account of his experience on this route.
thanks MP
I have still not been able to get that book, hv to find it
Hi, is it possible to find out what was the ticket charge from Colombo to Chennai via Dahushkode? And the Dhanushkide to Thlaimannar shipping charge?
Thanks
Sureah
hi
thanks suresh,check this link for details
http://www.irfca.org/docs/old-times.html
It would have been a tribute to this train if more details about this train was provided like train number,how many coaches, there used to br coaches for Trichy,Madurai etc.
Fantastic Narration.
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