Our belated congratulations to Captain Radhika Menon, who was awarded the IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea at a ceremony at the end of last month. Captain Menon is both the first Indian female merchant marine captain and the first woman to win the award for bravery, which recognizes those who risk their own lives to save others at sea.
Captain Menon was in command of the product tanker Sampurna Swarajya when she lead the extremely difficult rescue of seven fisherman, who had been adrift in heavy seas for a week in the Bay of Bengal.
IMO reports: Captain Menon was nominated for the award by the Government of India, for her great determination and courage in leading the difficult rescue operation to save all seven fishermen from the fishing boat Durgamma. The boat was adrift following engine failure and loss of anchor in severe weather. Food and water had been washed away and they were surviving on ice from the cold storage.
Through wave heights of more than 25 feet, winds of more than 60 knots and heavy rain, on 22 June 2015, the second officer on the Sampurna Swarajya spotted the boat 2.5 kilometres away, off the coast of Gopalpur, Orissa.
Captain Menon immediately ordered a rescue operation, utilising the pilot ladder and with life jackets and buoys on standby. It took three arduous attempts in the lashing wind and rain and heavy swells, before all seven weak and starving fishermen, aged from 15 to 50 years old, were brought to safety on board the ship.
Their families had already given them up for dead and were preparing for their funeral rites. But thanks to the rescue, led by Captain Menon, they were reunited with their loved ones a few days later.
Rescued fisherman Dasari Danayya, speaking in his home town of Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, said that without Captain Menon, they would not be alive.
“We could do nothing except wipe the tears from our eyes. Madam appeared as a goddess, and saved our lives,” he told The Shipping Corporation of India, in a video broadcast during the ceremony.
Radhika Menon began her maritime career in 1991 as a trainee radio officer in the Indian Navy and became the Navy’s first female radio officer. After leaving the navy, she joined the merchant marine and in 2011, became India’s first female merchant marine captain.