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| RMS Titanic |
This
year marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912, yet the event continues
to haunt. This is not least because, in its time, Titanic was a testament to technology – a wondrous accomplishment
that something of its size could travel so speedily. In its sinking, however,
it also revealed the vulnerability of humanity despite scientific progress.
While the ship was meant to be a luxury liner whose primary purpose was the
transport of well-heeled travellers, it also profited from others taking the
maiden journey. Passengers ranged in class, and this was true of the crew as
well. These economic distinctions are notably captured in James Cameron’s 1997
film Titanic, which has been
re-released this year. In it, star-crossed lovers - an aristocratic lady and a
stowaway - deal with societal differences and the wrecking of their vessel. Though
the film reveals that people of various means travelled in the days when ships
were a primary mode of long haul transport, it does little to foreground the racial
diversity of those who made the often perilous journeys. For Goans, those
travels have been part of our lore and familial legacies for centuries.
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| MV Dara |
Journeys
by sea have played a major part in Goa’s history. The start of the region’s
colonization by the Portuguese was effected by Vasco da Gama’s 1498 landing on
Calicut’s coast and, then, Afonso de Albuquerque’s naval conquest of Goa in
1510. In the colonial era, the once familiar waters that Goans as a coastal
people had known so well and relied upon for subsistence would be left behind
for the shores of the European empires in Africa and other parts of Asia. If
the ocean is an archive, then the stories of tarvotti, men of the sea from Goa, have often been submerged in
favour of a grander narrative of diaspora – projects that align the foreign-travelling
Goan with the ethos of colonial exploration and “discovery.” No doubt, even the
working class Goan seafarer has contributed to the perpetuation of colonial projects,
but might these other perspectives offer nuance or even rupture to how a Goan history
of oceanic travel is understood as not being a monolithic experience?
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| Gregory Fernandes |
The
tarvotti of yore may appear to be
hidden in the mists of time, but the sea continues to employ Goans. In January
this year, Goan crewmen aboard the Costa
Concordia escaped the cruise liner which capsized in Italy. The phenomenon
of Goans being employed aboard ships is so commonplace that these seamen have
been given their own cultural designation – the term “shippies” renders them as
present-day tarvotti. Unlike Concordia’s survivors, stories of
shippies have not always been ones of luck. In April 1961, the M. V. Dara saw the largest loss of life
after Titanic. A bomb blast aboard
the ship, docked in Dubai, took the lives of over 200 people, many Goans
included. In 2007, Goan sailor Gregory Fernandes was killed in a racist attack.
He was on leave in Southampton, which was the port from where Titanic’s one and only journey began.
This April, as that journey is recalled, it is also occasion to surface the
economic and racial diversity inherent to maritime history.
An online version of the print article appears here.
An online version of the print article appears here.
