Dedication ceremony of
On
THE MEMORIAL ANCHOR OF
THE DREDGER “LORD WILLINGDON”
THAT MADE THE WILLINGDON ISLAND
BY
SHRI MOHANLAL,
(Cine Artist & Padma Bhushan Recipient)
Saturday, 7th September 2019 at 9:00 AM at
MERCHANT NAVY CLUB, KOCHI
The modern port of Cochin is situated in “Wllingdon Island”- a historical
monument of human efforts which was constructed reclaiming 3.2 Sq.km of land under the visionary leadership of a British Harbour Engineer Sir Robert Bristow and named after Lord Willingdon – the 32 nd Viceroy of India who was instrumental in the implementation of this green-field port at the southern end of Indian peninsula.
On May 26, 1928, Capt. Bullen of the steam ship `Padma’, coming down from Bombay sailed calmly into this newly made harbour and the modern port of Cochin was thus opened to the world.
This colossal reclamation work was achieved with the help of a dredger by
name ‘Lord Willingdon’, which worked relentlessly since its arrival at
Kochi in 1926 till the successful completion of this mammoth project.
Having outlived her life Dredger Willingdon sank off the Cochin harbour in 1979, but the remains of her proud memories- “the Anchor” – is being installed in front of the Merchant Navy Club, Kochi as a befitting memorial.
The monument- “The Anchor that made this island”, conceived and executed by famous Artist Maraprabhu Ramachandran is a tribute to the long saga of ambition, skill, determination and perseverance of Robert Bristow and his team in making one of the safest harbours in the peninsula.
