History
The ship was initially built by Marinens Hovedverft in Norway and named as ''Oscarsord''. The Kerala Shipping Corporation (KSC) purchased the ship for a sum of 5.81Last voyage
MV ''Kairali'' sailed from Margao on 30 June 1979. The ship was travelling to Rostock, Germany via Djibouti with 20,538 tonnes of iron ore. There were communications from and to the ship on 1st, 2nd, and 3 July 1979 through the Bombay Radio, the official agency to communicate messages to and from the ship. The last message received from the ship was on 3 July 1979 at 8:00 pm. On 11 July 1979 Mitcots, ''Kairali''’s shipping agents in Djibouti, reported to KSC that the ship had not reported at Djibouti for fuelling on 8 July 1979 as per her schedule.Search efforts
There was a delay in the search effort, which started only on 16 July 1979. TheProbable causes of loss
The exact reason the ship went missing is still unknown. The following causes have been attributed by the relatives of crew members and people who worked in shipping industry ;Liquification of cargo Kairali was sailing with a cargo of iron ore in the month of July, which is a peak monsoon month. In all probability the vessel may have loaded cargo with high moisture content and possibly exceeding the Transportable Moisture Limit. This may have given rise to a condition were the cargo may have liquefied and eventually causing the vessel to capsize. ;Excess cargo As per a crew member who was working for ''Kairali'', the ship which had a capacity of 19,000 tonnes, allegedly carried 20,500 tonnes of iron ore during the voyage in total disregard of safety norms. Also the mandatory process of balancing the cargo after it was loaded was not followed. This would have caused the cargo to shift in rough waves and eventually she could have sunk in high waves. ;Faulty Radar There is an allegation that the radar of the ship was under repair and Captain Mariyadas Joseph of MV ''Kairali'' refused to set sail on the morning of 3 July. But he was forced to commence the journey on the evening of the same day without repairing the radar. ;Bad weather Owing to bad weather and rough waves the ship may have broken into pieces and sunk in high seas. ;Pirate attack The ship may have been subject to a hijacking by pirates and the crew members taken to some uninhabited islands to fend for themselves, while the ship was taken to another location. As the ship was rumoured to have a faulty radar the pirates could not be detected before they attacked the vessel.Criticisms
;Delay in search operations There was a delay of about 12 days in starting the search operations. The delay was inexplicable given that the captain and headquarters exchanged a routine message every noon during the voyage. ;Delay in releasing information to public domain The ship's disappearance was publicly announced only after a Kerala Shipping Corporation agent in Djibouti contacted the company's headquarters inCompensation
The ship was insured, and an insurance claim of 6.40 crores was paid to the Kerala Shipping Corporation (KSC) by the insurance company.Aftermath
Various cases were filed in courts by relatives of missing crew members of the ship for tracing the ship. Also the Kerala Shipping Corporation was unable to provide the addresses of the crew members, FIR, Inquiry report as per the right to information requests. So in July 2014 the Kerala State Information Commission asked the state government to submit a report within 30 days on the loss of the ''Kairali'', on the basis of complaints received.See also
*References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kairali Bulk carriers Kairali Maritime incidents in 1979 Ships built in Horten Missing ships 1966 ships Merchant ships of Norway