There may perhaps be scores of people who have no knowledge of the functions of I.N.S. Venduruthy, at Cochin, (South India). It is the largest of India's Naval Training Establishments. This huge "Stone Frigate"— which incidentally, is the naval expression used for a shore establishment, has been playing an important role in naval training.

I.N.S. Venduruthy is situated on an island at Cochin surrounded by beautiful back-waters fringed with coconut palms and lush verdure. About 50 years ago the island was a vast tract of marsh and bog unfit for human habitation. In fact, during spring tides the whole area was inundated by the sea.

Emerging from this marshland, the small island of Venduruthy (now part of Willingdon Island) lay isolated, approachable only from the Ernakulam backwater channel. It boasted of two edifices-the Roman Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul, built by the early Portuguese settlers in the 16th century and the Rectory where the lonely priest lived surrounded by his small flock of peasants living in thatched mud huts.

In 1925 when the late Marquis of Willingdon was Governor of Madras Province, the question of reclaiming this boggy marshland arose in Parliament and after many heated debates, reclamation was put into operation, lasting over a period of twenty years, eventually producing an island of no mean size.

Black, heavy, clay silt was scoured from the channel bed by the dredger Lord Willingdon and deposited in vast quantities upon the site, whilst around the perimeter a strong four-foot stone wall was constructed as a safeguard against inroads from the sea. Trees were planted along the coast to keep the soil firm. Within a decade the island which is now named Willingdon Island came into being. The Cochin Port Trust (Madras), commandeered the areas fringing the Mattancherry Channel north-west of the island and built fine buildings and a solid wharf. The rest of the land lay open with an abundance of grass and shrubbery growing in great profusion.

The World War II, however devastating it may have proved elsewhere, brought great importance to Willingdon Island, because the Royal Navy chose it as a strategic site not only for their headquarters in Southern India, but also as an air station cum landing craft and sea plane base. In 1946, the Royal Navy bequeathed their abandoned establishments to the Royal Indian Navy, and part of the deserted base was converted into a small establishment of about twenty Officers and 130 men. The name of the establishment which was then H.M.S. Chinkara was renamed H.M.I.S. Venduruthy (after the name of the original Venduruthy island) and on January 26, 1950, when India became a Republic, H.M.I.S. was altered to I.N.S.

As a result of partition, when the Indian Navy lost three of its best training establishments to Pakistan it became an urgent necessity to select suitable sites for the reconstruction of these and other important schools at the earliest possible opportunity. To set the ball rolling the Navy chose the late Commodore M.H. St. L. Nott, D.S.O., an Officer of the Royal Indian Navy for selecting sites for training establishments. After selecting Vishakapatanam for the Boys' Training Establishment, he came down to Cochin for a survey of Willingdon Island, which in his opinion was the very thing that he was searching for. He met with stiff opposition from his technical advisers who felt that the island was unsuitable for a naval base. But Commodore Nott's judgement prevailed and the Willingdon Island was eventually selected as a site for some of the future training schools of the Indian Navy, and most important of all-for India's first Naval Air Station.

But Commodore Nott never lived to see his dream fulfilled, as he was killed in an air crash at Corsica early in 1948.

Today the new projects in I.N.S. Venduruthy are progressing rapidly. The establishment had to split itself into two great hunks when on May 11, 1953, the new Air Station was officially commissioned and named I.N.S. Garuda by Shri Mahavir Tyagi, Minister of Defence Organisation. A "Fly Past" of Sealands flying in low formation over the Saluting Base-the first of it's kind in Indian Naval Air history- completed an awe-inspiring spectacle. Under the able command and inspiring leadership of Commander G. Douglas, D.F.C., I.N.-an ex-ace fighter pilot of the Royal Navy who distinguished himself with a brilliant record in World War II, the Officers and men of India's youngest establishment are doing a splendid job.