Vada Dasturji Khurshed K Dastoor, High Priest of Iranshah Atash Behram, Udvada, ZTFE patron Lord Karan F Bilimoria CBE DL and ZTFE President Malcolm M Deboo led the the ZTFE delegation on board the Indian Navy Ship Tarkash, for the launch of the bicentenary commemorations of HMS Trincomalee and Make in India, on Tuesday 9th May 2017.

The host of the event were The Commanding Officer Captain Ritu Raj Sahu, Officers and Men of INS Tarkash, in collaboration with the National Museum of the Royal Navy & HMS Trincomalee Trust. The INS Tarkash was docked at Thames Quay, West India Dock, London, E14 9SG.

HMS Trincomalee is not only the oldest ship afloat in the Royal Navy, but it is the oldest warship ship afloat in the world. It was built by Jamsetji Bomanji Wadia, the great Parsi Zoroastrian Master Ship Builder of the legendary Wadia family at Bombay Dockyard for the British Admiralty in 1817.

Vada Dasturji Khurshed was requested to recite a short prayer:

• Invoking the fravashis of the Wadia Master Ship Builders; Lovji Nusserwanji, Maneckji Lovji, Bomanji Lovji, Framji Maneckji and Jamsetji Bomanji.

• Remembering, revering and praising the good heroic and the beneficent souls of the armed forces, rulers and righteous people who have served and sacrificed their lives defending our freedom in India and the United Kingdom from our adversaries.

In front of the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, the immediate former First Sea Lord, Officers in the RN, Army and RAF, the Defense Minister of the United Kingdom, the Commander and Officers of INS Tarkash, the Indian Naval Attache in London and the Indian High Commissioner, Vada Dasturji concluded with a benedictory prayer requesting Ahura Mazda to protect all those who sail on the INS Tarkash defending the boarders of India and conducting its international maritime duties and for the HMS Trincomalee to continue to be afloat for another 200 years.

Since India is a secular country, it is extremely rare for a prayer to be recited publicly on board a Indian Navy Ship, thus special permission had to be granted for Vada Dasturji to recite pray on INS Tarkash. Indeed a rare honour!

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On behalf of ZTFE, Vada Dasturji Khurshed K Dastoor, Lord Karan F Bilimora, President Malcolm M Deboo, Vice President Behram R Kapadia and Trustee Rusi K Dalal, presented ZTFE Sesquicentennial Medallions to;

• Captain Ritu Raj Sahu, Commanding Officer, INS Tarkash.

• Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB, ADC, First Sea Lord, Royal Navy.

• Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB, DL, Chairman National Museum of the Royal Navy and former First Sea Lord.

• Colonel Euan Houston OBE, Chairman HMS Trincomalee Trust.

• Commodore Sameer Saxena, Naval Adviser, High Commission of India

• His Excellency Yasvant K Sinha, High Commissioner of India.

To view the 73 photographs, taken by the Cobra Beer of the launch of the HMS Trincomalee bicentennial celebration onboard INS Tarkash, kindly download the Wetransfer file before 18th May 2017.