Labourers stumble upon 73-year-old US-made boat in Jamrao canal

Published March 17, 2017
THE US-made metal boat discovered during cleaning of Jamrao Canal in Mirpurkhas. (Right) The registration plate of the boat shows it belongs to the US Army’s engineering corps and was built in December 1944 to serve as part of a floating bridge.—Dawn
THE US-made metal boat discovered during cleaning of Jamrao Canal in Mirpurkhas. (Right) The registration plate of the boat shows it belongs to the US Army’s engineering corps and was built in December 1944 to serve as part of a floating bridge.—Dawn

MIRPURKHAS: Labour­ers stumbled upon a 73-year-old US-made aluminium boat when they were busy cleaning the bed of West Jamrao canal of silt under a bridge with the help of excavators, 20 kilometres from here on Wednesday evening.

The boat was apparently part of a floating bridge used by the army’s engineers corps to prepare makeshift bridges on rivers and canals during wartime.

The registration plate still intact and affixed to the boat’s side, gives its owners name as Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. It reads further: “Gross weight 1750 pounds, manufactured by Consolidated Builders Inc. Portland, Oregon, model No M4, dated Dec 23, 1944.”

An official of the irrigation department said on condition of anonymity that three such boats were employed by Pakistan army engineers when they were building a temporary bridge over the canal during the 1971 war preparations.

They took away two and left one behind, which was either sunk in the canal or displaced at that time. It might be that missing boat, he said, adding the future of the boat would be decided by higher authorities.

Sources in the irrigation department said the boat also suffered some damage when an excavator hit it and pulled it from beneath many layers of silt and slime. The work on desilting of the canal was going on under the project for lining the channel, said the sources.

Mirpurkhas irrigation subdivision SDO Ali Madad Parhyar said that he was busy supervising the lining work when he saw the excavators hitting the boat. He did not know the exact history of the boat, which was about 12 to 20 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide, and only archaeological experts could determine its age, he said.

Besides being a significant discovery of historical import, the boat has also laid bare the truth of the desilting drives the department has been carrying out periodically for the past many decades. People believe if the department had honestly desilted the canal it would have turned up the boat much earlier.

APP adds: Nara Canal Area Water Board director Imtiaz Memon said the boat would be handed over to the department of archaeology.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017

Opinion

Editorial

Chilas bus attack
Updated 05 Dec, 2023

Chilas bus attack

Locals, particularly in Diamer and Kohistan, need to be on board to ensure that militants have no place to hide.
State’s insecurities
05 Dec, 2023

State’s insecurities

ONE hopes that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor’s recent remarks regarding the ‘less-than-ideal’ security...
Underage driving
05 Dec, 2023

Underage driving

SIX lives — all members of a single family — were recently lost in Lahore to the unabated menace of underage...
Electable politics
Updated 04 Dec, 2023

Electable politics

With the PTI still on the wrong side of the political equation, the prospects will be bright for whoever takes the lead.
War of narratives
04 Dec, 2023

War of narratives

MILITARILY, there is no match between the Israeli war machine, and the defenceless people of Gaza. On one side is a...
Returns on deposits
04 Dec, 2023

Returns on deposits

DESPITE the deceleration of deposit mobilisation, bank deposits have jumped to a record high of Rs25.6tr in FY23. ...