Captain Radhika Menon

#32/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Captain Radhika Menon will become the first woman in the world to receive the Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Master of the oil products tanker Sampurna Swarajya, she rescued the lives of seven fishermen in the Bay of Bengal last June, and will receive the award at a ceremony at IMO Headquarters on November 21.

After engine failure and loss of anchor because of harsh sea weather, the fishing boat ‘Durgamma’ was caught in a storm. It had drifted from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Gopalpur in Odisha and the seven fishermen onboard were surviving on ice from the cold storage because their food supplies had been washed away. They had lost all hopes of rescue. Radhika Menon was at the helm of the oil tanker Sampurna Swarajya and spotted the vessel 2.5 km away. “Through wave heights of more than 25 feet, winds of more than 60 knots and heavy rain, on 22 June, the second officer on the Sampurna Swarajya spotted the boat 2.5 kilometres away, off the coast of Gopalpur, Odisha. Captain Menon immediately ordered a rescue operation, utilising the pilot ladder and with life jackets on standby,” the Shipping Ministry said in a statement. After three arduous attempts in the lashing wind and rain and heavy swells before all seven weak and starving fishermen, aged between 15 and 50 years, were brought to safety. The fishermen’s families had believed that they were lost at sea and were preparing for their last rites when they received a call about the rescue. They were reunited with their loved ones a few days later.

“It is a maritime obligation to save souls in distress at sea and, as a seafarer and master in command of my ship, I just did my duty,” she told the press. IMO is the United Nations specialised agency, which is responsible for the safety of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships. This annual Award was established by IMO to provide international recognition for those who, at the risk of losing their own life, perform acts of exceptional bravery, displaying outstanding courage in attempting to save life at sea or in attempting to prevent or mitigate damage to the marine environment. Nominations are scrutinized by an Assessment Panel made up of members of non governmental organizations in consultative status with IMO, under the chairmanship of the Secretary-General. Subsequently, a Panel of Judges meets (under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the Council, with the participation of the Chairmen of the Maritime Safety Committee, the Marine Environment Protection Committee, the Legal Committee, the Technical Cooperation Committee and the Facilitation Committee) to consider the recommendations of the Assessment Panel and to select the recipient of the Award. There are three categories of honour: first, the Award itself, for the nominee judged to have performed the most outstanding act of bravery from among those described. Secondly, Certificates of Commendation are awarded to nominees who have committed acts of extraordinary bravery. And, thirdly, Letters of Commendation are sent to those nominees who are judged to deserve some special recognition for meritorious actions.

The recipient of the Award is invited to a special ceremony at IMO to receive a medal and a certificate citing the act of exceptional bravery performed. The Awards ceremony is expected to take place at IMO Headquarters, on 21 November, at the end of the first day of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC). Captain Menon was nominated by the Government of India and the IMO Council, meeting for its 116th session in London, shared the decision that Captain Menon displayed great determination and courage in leading the difficult rescue operation.

A resident Kodungallur in Kerala, she became the first woman to captain a ship of the Indian Merchant Navy five years ago. She did a one-and-a-half year radio course at the All India Marine College in Kochi before she became a radio officer in Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), the first woman to do so in India.

Source: Various news stories published about the IMO award for Capt. Menon