Kuakata ancient boat salvage work restarts

Salvage operations of an ancient boat, inset, presumably dating back 200 years, being carried out on the sandy beach of Kuakata in Patuakhali yesterday. Photo: Syed Wasara Doja

A team of experts yesterday restarted salvage operations of an ancient boat that surfaced on June 29 last year near the River Gangamati on the Kuakata beach, three kilometres east of Kuakata zero point.
The salvage operation was postponed on January 20 due to high tides invading the site. As per Bangladesh Navy, the lowest tide will be on February 20 and the experts chose to work for a week centring this date.
The 72ft-by-23ft boat has a hull protected by a bright copper sheet and is believed to be belonging to the first Rakhine settlers from Arakan province in Myanmar over 200 years ago.
Uchasi Matubbar, 70, a leader of the Rakhaine community in Kuakata, said over 150 Rakhaine families had come to the area, fleeing atrocities in Myanmar in 1784.
It will be transported to a site near the zero point earmarked for a museum by the Local Government Engineering Department.
Yves Marre, an expert on traditional boats of Bangladesh and the head of the technical team for salvaging the boat, said it would be a challenge to lift the boat, weighing about 30 tonnes.
“In our first phase of operation last month, we found that the remaining wooden parts of the boat have been well preserved by nature but all other features on its top have either been stolen or erased by nature,” he said.