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Friday, July 04, 2003

By Bob Batz Jr. and Surendra Phuyal , Post-Gazette Staff Writers

ABOARD THE U.S. BRIG NIAGARA -- As this tall ship sailed out into wide Lake Erie, Sonali Ghos eagerly waited for her husband's ship to come in.

	The INS Tarangini, the only sail training ship of the Indian Navy, docked at Erie yesterday on a voyage that began January 23. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

"Will they let us climb so I can go up and wave this?" she asked from the deck yesterday morning, touching her orange silk scarf that blew in the hot breeze just off the port of Erie. She scanned the hazy horizon and saw nothing. But perhaps, she hoped, her husband could see her. "He's got two sharp eyes."

She was one of three Indian guests aboard the U.S. Brig Niagara, Pennsylvania's reconstructed War of 1812 flagship, as it sailed out of its home port on a special mission: to meet and escort back into Erie another sailing sister, the Indian Navy ship Tarangini.

Modern-built of steel and aluminum but ghostly in its old-fashioned design, the white three-masted barque is a training vessel for India's Navy and carries a crew of about 40, plus about 30 cadets.

It's now on an unprecedented friendship voyage around the world that started in Kochi, India, on Jan. 21.

Ghos' husband, Satish Moka, is a Navy lieutenant who joined the ship in April at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands off the African coast.

And she flew over about three weeks ago to meet him in Hamilton, Ontario. As her companion, Sabiha Ali laughingly put it, "We are chasing our husbands."

Hers, S. Shaukat Ali, is commander of this adventurous goodwill mission, which is to visit 36 ports in 17 countries. Representatives from those countries are being added to the rotating crew.

The name Tarangini, in Hindi, means, "she who makes waves," and she certainly was doing that yesterday. The two sailors' wives weren't the only ones among the 40 or so guests on the Niagara who thrilled at the first glimpses of the 177-foot-long ship as she approached from her last stopover in Toronto.

Others on pleasure boats and on land stared and waved and snapped photos as the Niagara led her back into the bay to dock at Dobbins Landing in the heart of Erie's bustling bayfront.

People will have a chance to see and tour the Tarangini for free there through Monday as part of an event called "Ships at Rest." Today, a third tall ship replica, the Pride of Baltimore, is to arrive at the Erie Maritime Museum, where, through Monday, for the price of admission, visitors can tour her as well as the Niagara. Other smaller sailing vessels are to rest here for a few days, too.

	The U.S. Brig Niagara, serving as an escort, is seen under the bowsprit of the Indian Navy ship Tarangini at Erie yesterday. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

For Western Pennsylvania tall ship aficionados, just having the Niagara at home on a summer holiday weekend is a treat. But the real action is happening further along the Erie coast in Ohio, which is celebrating its bicentennial with tall ships festivities at several ports. The ships in Erie are to depart Tuesday toward the July 9-13 Huntington Cleveland Harborfest, billed as the largest gathering of tall ships since the 1800s.

How tall is tall?

The Tarangini's main mast is 113 feet 2-plus inches above the waterline. The Niagara's is a little taller, at 118 feet 4 inches, but it seemed a lot taller to guests as they looked up at sweating crew members swarming the rope rigging.

As the Niagara's captain, Walter Rybka, explained, "This is a big engine that runs on wind and muscle power."

Among the non-working ship lovers who were lucky to get aboard the day sail were John DiTommaso of Murrysville, who's been vacationing with his wife, Sana, at their Lake Erie cottage. Earlier this week, he about lost it looking for film for his camera when the HMS Bounty slid past (on its way to this weekend's stop in Fairport, Ohio). So teased his wife, who hasn't been as thrilled at this chance to sail.

But as the captain cut the Niagara's diesel engines and the canvas spanker sail gently unfurled right in front of her, blotting out the sun, she was awed.

There's just something about these ships, which will be celebrated all summer throughout the Great Lakes with races and other events organized by the American Sail Training Association.

India's Washington, D.C.-based naval attache, Commodore Ashok Sawhney, also was aboard the Niagara, positively gleaming in his gold-accented white uniform. He was quite proud as he described the Tarangini as one of the relatively few such Navy training vessels in the world.

"The main aim is to circumnavigate the earth, which is a historic event. We are doing it for the first time," he said, between calls from his friends and compatriots on his mobile phone.

Before the Niagara headed back out for some more training of its own, Sawhney and the two sailors' wives left by cutter to greet the Tarangini. It'd only been one day since these wives had seen their husbands, but the husbands were looking forward to reuniting, too.

Lt. Moka said he felt great. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said about the voyage, which, after exiting the Great Lakes, will go down the East Coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific and back to Mumbai, India, by May 1. "You don't get to travel like this very often."

He got no argument from U.S. Coast Guard cadet Michael Nordhausen, who has sailed on its tall ship the Eagle. One of two Americans who got on the Tarangini at Toronto, he's going as far as Chicago.

Looking at home in one of the Indian sailors' dark blue Reebok polo shirts, he chatted about the foods and other new customs with some of the curious who came out to see the spectacle.

"How'd you get on an Indian tall ship?" one woman yelled.

To which he replied, "I got lucky."

For more information on Ships at Rest, go to www.brigniagara.org or call the Erie Maritime Museum at 1-814-452-2744.

For more information on festivities across Ohio, go to www.tallshipsohio2003.com.

Bob Batz Jr. can be reached at bbatz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1930.