IMarEST Sri Lanka Branch
The available records indicate that the Institute of Marine Engineers (Ceylon Branch) officially commenced its activities with a meeting held at the Royal Ceylon Navy Wardroom, Flagstaff Street, Colombo in June 1964 with 12 Members present. The most senior Member at that time, Mr. C.W.V. Ferdinands was elected as the local Vice President. Mr. J. Stewart Robinson, the Secretary of The Institute of Marine Engineers too was present at this meeting.
It was the Engineers who were working in the Colombo Port Commission, Messrs. Walker Sons & Co. Ltd., the Colombo Commercial Company Limited and the Royal Ceylon Navy, who helped to launch the Ceylon Branch. Most of the Engineers were past Special Apprentices of those Companies who have joined shore based Firms after serving in the British Merchant Navy and obtaining their BOT Certificates.
In late sixties, the intake of Apprentices was increased and this benefited the country when they launched the Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) in 1972. Within a short period of 2-3 years, the Engineering Department of the CSC was taken-over to be manned by qualified Sri Lankan Engineers. Ceylon became a Republic in 1972 and the name of the Branch was changed accordingly.
After the inauguration of the CSC, the Branch membership increased rapidly with Engineers obtaining the British Certificate of Competency (BOT, MOT, D.Tp etc.)
In 1974, the Colombo Dockyard (Pvt.) Limited (CDL) was launched, particularly to repair CSC vessels and some of the Marine Engineers found employment with the CDL. Today the CDL is an ISO certified, fully fledged ship building and ship repair Firm which operates 5 dry docks in Colombo.
In the early 80s, the University of Moratuwa, started its National Diploma in Technology (Marine) with the aid of the UNDP and since then about 500 Marine Engineers were produced by this Institution. Later, the Technicians Training Institute of Katunayake and a private Institute - CINEC started conducting courses for the Engineers.
The Branch celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1989 in a grand scale. A two day Seminar and an international marine exhibition were held to commemorate this event. This year, we celebrate 45 years in existence in Sri Lanka.
The annual agenda of the Branch consists of a minimum of 4 Lecture presentations, 2 students’ visits, on account of social events. The Branch also annually celebrates the traditional Sinhala new year and Christmas, along with the other Marine Institutes. All the Mariners get together for the Annual Cricket Festival with soft ball cricket matches between the Masters & Engineers and between the students of the Marine educational Institutes. The latter which gathers momentum amongst the Mariners is an event everybody looks forward to.
Marine Engineering in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka being an Island is situated within the crossroads of the “silk route” of the sea, had maritime links with all the nations such as Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Persians. Our Island absorbed the maritime traditions of these nations and preserved them too. The present archeological discoveries, specially along the southern coast proves that this “silk route” was in existence from East to West via our Island.
Since 1505 AD, when the Portuguese arrived in Galle and later Dutch, French and British nationals, the Island of Sri Lanka (Thambapanni, Serendib, Ceylan, Ceylon and later Sri Lanka) played a major role in the world spice trade from East to West. All this was due to the natural Harbour in Galle, Sri Lanka. The Harbour that was built in 1874 in the capital of Sri Lanka – Colombo, became the hub of the Indian Ocean.
This small Island possesses 5 Harbours viz. Colombo, Galle, Trincomalee, Kankasanthurai and Hambantota (now under construction). Out of them, the Harbour in Colombo tops the list and Trincomalee has been a Naval base. The Harbours in Galle and Trincomalee are natural ones.
The Harbour in Colombo caters for all weather conditions throughout the year and hence, most of the ship repair and ship building are centered in Colombo. A couple of centuries ago, British ship repair Firms were in operation in Sri Lanka and now this is succeeded by the Colombo Dockyard (Pvt.) Limited, which is a state of the art ship building and ship repair Firm.
The future of the Sri Lanka Marine Engineering will depend on the training offered to students to man the vessels of all nationalities and also, ship repair and building in Colombo. In addition to this, the services offered by the Hambantota Port once it commences its operations in 2011 and the exploration of oil around the coastal belt of Sri Lanka will divert our traditional ways of Marine Engineering to the needs of the 21st Century.