Cult train: Standing mail on the pier dhanushkodi with steamer in the background. After the 1964 cyclone, the train was operated from Chennai to Rameswaam and the ferry services were stopped. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Infocus
The Boat Mail Express, a unique mixture of rail and sea travel, was an iconic service that joined India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for more than half a century. This significant service between Madras and Colombo not only showed the ingenuity of traffic in its era, but also became a vital rescue rope for trade and traveling between the two nations via Palk Bay, leaving a permanent legacy in the history of South Asian transport.
The beginnings of Boat Mail Express, also called Indo-Ceylon Express, date back to the end of the 19th century, when the train service between Madras and Tuticorin (thoothuku) was introduced and continued to combine Ceylon by sea. In his book The Great Indian Railways: Cultural Ciography, Professor Arup K. Chatterjee: “Under the South Indian railway, the ship’s post was launched and created a passenger route from Madras Egmore to Ceylon.
After the inauguration of the famous Pamban Bridge in February 1914, the boat began to operate between Madras and Dhanushkodi. The ferry steamboats were operated from Dhanushkodi to Talaimannar, Ceylon, a distance of 22 million from Talaimannar took another train to Colombo.
‘Sick Sea Transition’
In the Hindu column “Madras Miscelany”, historian S. Muthiah, wrote in 2012 about his experience in traveling in the post office. He said, “From the 1930s to the 1950s, I regularly traveled between Ceylon and India by train, with somewhat disgusting one and a half -hour sea crossing between them. Only recently did I realize that this journey was completed 100 years ago (2012), when the South Indian Navigation Society (BI).”
During the reference to the Muthiah agreement, he wrote: “All operations from stations south of Madurai to Colombo and would continue to be routed through tuticorin, where bio -steamboats (passengers) would take (passengers) to Colombo. The new route via Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar. ”
Piers Buililen Buildi, Talaimanar
He also noted that the Piers were built in Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar for three 688 tons, 260 feet of long turbine steamboats designed by Sir William White. They were ordered from AJ Innis Ltd. in Glasgow. They were called Curzon, Elgin and Hardinge and started in 1912 and 1913. Later at the age of 30 they were replaced by Irwin and Goschen. The report published in Hindu 2. January 1965 remembered nostalgic memories of retirement official, who joined the South Indian railway in 1912 and left 38 years later and retired Irwin, French in India. They told their experience with shipping and ferry passengers.
According to a retirement officer, the activities of the British Government in Southeast Asia during World War II, they caused a huge burden of Indo-ceylon Express because it had to run a large number of soldiers between India and Ceylon (Kandy was the headquarters of Southeast Asia under Lord Louis Mounthatten). The retired captain said he carried 3,000 workers from India and about 350 tons of cargo. A heavy storm that shook Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar in 1931, almost one day, 23 December, and Irwin’s cruise to Talaimannar was dangerous and 700 European passengers were on board. But the ship reached Talaimannar safely.
Tickets to any station
As part of the arrangement between the transport company and the railways, passengers bound to Talaimannar could get tickets to any station in the state to travel by boat. Talaimannar ferry service included railway card fees. Port Colombo was suitable for South Indians who traveled to Australia and Great Britain. They preferred boat mail to approach Colombo.
When people traveled through this train, it was equipped with a dining room on wheels. There was a sufficient amount of luggage deliveries to transport goods to Rameswaam and Dhanushkodi, because there was no connection between the mainland and the island by 1988 and the Pamban railway bridge was the only transport connection. Leaders and prominent personalities such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak and S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar also traveled in the shipping post office, Hindu informed.
In August 1952, the ship’s post made subtitles for another reason. The headless body of the man was found in the trunk in the train carriage. A few days later, his head was found swinging at sea near Royapuram in Chennai. The victim was entrepreneur Alavandar based in Chennai. It became known as the “case of the murder of Alavandar”. This murder still remains one of the most cooler and most interesting crimes that include a woman in the 20th century.
Cyclone destroys molo dhanushkodi
Devasting cyclone 24 December 1964 retaified the city of Dhanushkodi, pier and passenger train headed to Dhanushkodi from Pamban. After this disaster, the railways operated the train from Chennai to Rameswaam and the ferry services were stopped.
Published – April 8, 2025 22:28
