The restless seafarer!

SARNGA DHARAN NAMBIAR -

We know that fairytales are in fact deeply coded messages camouflaged as endearing narratives told beyond the framework of logic to please and excite children who haven’t yet come to terms with the dry logic of the harsh outer world... we also know that fairytales consolingly converse with adults too who want to escape the mediocrity of the world that exhausts itself in revolving around a logical axis that in essence negates any miraculous possibilities in life.

If we take the Seven Voyages of Sindbad in the One Thousand and One Nights, where the daredevil sailor sails past magical lands of monsters experiencing the supernatural, the one question still unanswered is why Sindbad the Sailor stopped his adventurous pursuit with his seventh voyage... why he set sail again and again even as each voyage turned out to be so calamitous, till he finished the seventh?

His journeys to unknown shores were triggered by his soul’s boredom with a life of leisure and a yearning for travel around the world to see men and their cities and islands, this much we gather from Scheherazade, the Persian queen. Maybe, countless journeys followed that were not narrated to anyone for reasons that could be as mysterious as the events that unfolded in Sindbad’s life... and, what about the ship, his sole travel companion? Was it a ‘ghanjah’ similar to ‘Fatah al Khair’, which set sail on benevolent monsoon winds to the shores of Africa, Persia and India?

The 220-tonne two-masted Fatah al Khair was built for the Sur-based merchant Said bin Ali Khamis al Qasimi by Sur’s famed master boat-builder Mohammed bin Shaqaq al Araimi in accordance with the town’s seafaring legacy. Its keel was laid in 1951.

After sailing for four years traversing the monsoon routes linking the Sultanate and Aden, East Africa, the Gulf and India, it got fitted with an engine in Bahrain.

Later, in 1970, Fatah al Khair was sold to a Yemeni merchant, but it was brought back to Sur in 1993 under the aegis of the Municipality of Sur, recognizing its value as the last surviving Sur-built ghanjah. A long and arduous restoration work ensued and the vessel’s hull was refigured into its pre-motorised state.

Today, Fatah al Khair is one of the top attractions at the Sur Maritime Museum that houses a rich collection of items related to the port town’s amazing shipbuilding heritage.

Oman’s heritage, especially maritime heritage, has always been a strong element of its tourism drive. Recently, the Ministry of Heritage and Culture awarded a contract to an Italian firm to renovate the Fatah Al Khair Centre in Sur that offer a great glimpse into the rich heritage of the ancient town of Sur. Outside the Centre and the Museum, a raft of ancient homes and the boatyard that makes dhows, among others, highlight the place’s heritage value.

It seems Sindbad, who represents the (mythical) epitome of Oman’s seafaring tradition (not to forget his Baghdad connections as well), hasn’t yet folded the sails of his ghanjah. In the minds of the people of Sur, and possibly in the minds of all who love or appreciate voyages including tourists from far and wide, Sindbad continues to undertake his journey to the yonder shores, defying catastrophes that test the seafarer’s determination.

And those voyages not just leave us mesmerized, but inspire us to visit Sur, the legendary hub of maritime trade. It could be experiential tourism at its best.