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34-585: Mormugao is a coastal town situated in the eponymous subdistrict of Southern Goa state, India. It has a deep natural harbour and remains Goa's chief port. Towards the end of the Indo-Portuguese era in 1917, thirty-one settlements were carved out of the Salcette territory, to form Mormugao with Mormugao seaport as its headquarters. The remaining thirty-five settlements were retained in Salcette which encompass

68-588: A Gestapo spy, Robert Koch (known as the "Trumpet") and his wife Grete were living in Panaji , the capital of Goa. SOE agents Lieutenant colonel Lewis Pugh and Colonel Stewart went to Goa in November 1942 and kidnapped Robert and Grete Koch on 19 December. The couple was taken to Castle Rock, Karnataka , for questioning as part of Operation Hotspur. The Kochs vanish from the records shortly afterwards, with conflicting reports on their ultimate fate. The SOE now suspected

102-654: A covert operation without the involvement of regular British armed forces. They recruited members of the Calcutta Light Horse 1,400 miles (2,300 km) away in Calcutta , who were on military reserve but were mainly middle-aged bankers, merchants, and solicitors. The SOE chose fourteen volunteers from the Light Horse and four more from the Calcutta Scottish to perform a covert operation led by Pugh: to capture or sink

136-602: A good life, bribing the authorities and even roaming freely in the compound. While some infiltrated into British India and then escaped to their native countries after being set free, some of the Germans settled in Goa and started families there, facing an uncertain future in Germany. As the attack was secret, the members of the British assault team received no official recognition of their part in

170-599: A key trading point. It was chosen for the terminus of the new metre gauge railway linking the Portuguese colony to British India. For a fabulous price, the Western India Portuguese Guaranteed Railways Company , a British enterprise, modernised the port and built the railway. Both were opened to the public in July 1886. Mormugao's city of Vasco da Gama was planned and built in the early years of

204-520: A large party in Vasco, inviting crews from all the ships in the harbour, which left only a small crew aboard Ehrenfels . Due to a "coincidence", both the lighthouse and illuminated buoy of Mormugão harbour were not working that night, allowing Phoebe to enter port in darkness. The British team attacked the Ehrenfels , killing its captain and some of the crew, and capturing the ship and its transmitter. After

238-470: A secret transmitter aboard the Ehrenfels was guiding German U-boat attacks against Allied shipping, on instructions from Koch. Attacks in the Indian Ocean continued, and in the first week of March 1943, German U-boats sank twelve US, UK, Norwegian, and Dutch ships, totalling about 80,000 tons. The British could not infringe on Portugal's neutrality by openly invading its territory. The SOE decided to try

272-626: Is a famous institution situated in Zuarinagar, which provides higher education in Arts and Commerce along with Birla Institute of Science and Technology (BITS) that caters to university level of education in the fields of engineering and medicine. Mormugao taluka Morumugão was one of the first places to be conquered and incorporated into the Velhas Conquistas of the Portuguese Empire in

306-575: Is followed by the majority of population of Mormugao Taluka. Christians form a significant minority. At the time of the 2011 Census of India 64.85% of the population of the Taluka followed Hinduism, 21.54% Christianity, 12.76% Islam and 0.19% of the population followed other religions or did not state their religious affiliation. Konkani and Marathi are among the most commonly spoken languages in Mormugao Taluka. Languages of Mormugao Taluka (2011) At

340-407: Is the leading iron ore exporting port of India with an annual throughput of around 27.33 million tonnes of iron ore traffic. The INS Mormugao has been named after the port. Epidemics devastated Mormugao during the eighteenth century, but after that its fortunes turned. As the importance of one of India's best natural harbours grew more apparent, Mormugao, which the British called Marmagoa, became

374-597: The Dutch , who eventually took over from the Portuguese most of the coastal settlements: the Moluccas , Batticaloa , Trincomali , Galle , Malacca , Manar , Jaffna , Quilon , Cochin and Cannanore . From 1640 to 1643, the Dutch tried their best to capture Mormugão but were finally driven away. In 1683, the Portuguese in Goa were in grave danger from the Marathas . Almost certain defeat

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408-506: The Ehrenfels . After being armed and trained by the SOE, some of the eighteen-member assault team embarked on a hopper barge , Phoebe , at Calcutta and sailed around India to Goa. The rest took train from Calcutta to Cochin and joined the barge and its crew there. Around midnight of 9–10 March 1943, the town of Vasco da Gama , where Mormugão harbour is located, was celebrating the last day of Carnival . One team member used SOE funds to throw

442-759: The Goa State Assembly . The current MLAs are Alina Saldanha from Cortalim (Goa Assembly constituency) , Carlos Almeida from Vasco Da Gama (Vidhan Sabha constituency) , Milind Naik from Mormugao (Goa Assembly constituency) and Mauvin Godinho from Dabolim (Goa Assembly constituency) all from the Bharatiya Janata Party . Murgaon Education Society was established in 1971 with the goal of providing educational facilities at Vasco-da-Gama and in other parts of Murgaon Taluka. Mormugao Educational Society's College of Arts and Commerce locally known as MES College

476-542: The South Goa (Lok Sabha constituency) (also known as Mormugão (Lok Sabha constituency) ). In the 2019 Lok sabha elections, the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency was again won by Francisco Sardinha of Indian National Congress defeating Narendra Keshav Sawaikar of Bharatiya Janata Party , though Sawaikar had managed to gain lead in all 4 lok sabha constituencies of Mormugao. Mormugao taluka also elects 4 MLAs to

510-493: The East . At the time of the 2011 Census of India , Mormugao had a population of 154,561 with sex ratio of 905 females to 1000 males. Mormugao Taluka has an average literacy rate of 89.30%, higher than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 93.33% and female literacy is 84.84%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 1.66% and 4.44% of the population respectively. 85.62% of the population lives in urban areas. Hinduism

544-656: The Jesuit priest Father Teotónio Rebelo in charge. The Jesuit architects made a consistent effort to avoid the ornate style of the time. The austere viceregal palace still stands, having been used, after its short stint as a palace, in various capacities, including as a hotel which housed the British agents who in 1943 destroyed German ships anchored in Mormugao's neutral waters. Viceroys after Távora found Mormugao too secluded for their liking. The administrative headquarters were moved to

578-514: The codeword "Longshanks" to SOE headquarters, indicating that all Axis ships had been sunk. Ehrenfels ' captain and four members of his crew were reported dead, with four more reported missing. After the attack, the thirteen German U-boats operating in the Indian Ocean only sank one ship, the Panamanian Nortun of 3,663 tons, throughout the rest of March. In the following month of April, they attacked only three ships. The crews of

612-548: The foreword of Boarding Party , Earl Mountbatten of Burma wrote: This book tells how fourteen of them, with four colleagues from the Calcutta Scottish, another Auxiliary Force unit, volunteered for a hazardous task which, for reasons the author makes plain, no-one else was able to undertake. This happened shortly before my arrival in India in 1943, as Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, and immediately saw how valuable were

646-515: The four scuttled ships jumped overboard and swam ashore, where the Portuguese captured them and held them in Aguada jail . Local news reported that they had mutinied . On 1 October 1943 the Judicial Court of Mormugao stated that there had been no attack by a foreign ship, and convicted the crew members for the scuttling of their ships, imprisoning them until the end of the war. While in jail, they lived

680-409: The international emporium 'City of Goa', now Old Goa . As threats to their maritime supremacy increased, they built forts on various hillocks, especially along the coast. In 1624, they began to build their fortified town on the headland overlooking Mormugao harbour. The sultans of Bijapur , who had ruled Goa before the Portuguese, did not give up easily. There were several invasions. From the sea came

714-494: The level of Sub District Hospital with 120 beds. The DHS also provides Primary Health Care to the taluka through PHC Casaulim, PHC Cortalim and UHC Vasco. A number of private nursing homes, clinics, panchkarma centers, gyms and physiotherapy centers can also be found in the subdistrict. When the Portuguese colonised parts of Goa in the sixteenth century, they based their operations in the central district of Tiswadi , notably in

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748-443: The national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 70%. In Mormugão, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age. Konkani being the state language, Marathi, Kannada, Hindi and English are also spoken. The Directorate of health services Goa ( DHS) provides secondary level of healthcare to the people of mormugao and nearby places through the erstwhile Chicalim Cottage Hospital at Alto Chicalim now upgraded to

782-425: The new city of Panjim , which is still Goa's chief city. During World War II , the harbour of Mormugao was the site of Operation Creek , which resulted in the bombing of a German merchant ship, Ehrenfels, which had secretly been transmitting information to U-boats . Ever since it was accorded the status of a Major Port in 1963, the Mormugao port has contributed immensely to growth of maritime trade in India. It

816-428: The present-day Salcete taluka with Margao as its headquarters. Mormugao is located at 15°15′N 73°59′E  /  15.25°N 73.98°E  / 15.25; 73.98 . It has an average elevation of 2 metres (7 feet). As of 2001 India census , Mormugao had a population of 97,085. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Mormugao has an average literacy rate of 75%, higher than

850-444: The ship had been captured, some of the crew of Ehrenfels scuttled the ship by opening its seacocks . The British team suffered no casualties in the operation, and left aboard Phoebe . The crews of the other merchant ships in the harbour, Drachenfels , Braunfels and Anfora , seeing the Ehrenfels on fire and sinking, scuttled their ships to prevent their capture by the British. As Phoebe left Mormugao harbour it transmitted

884-698: The ships to find jobs in Goa. The British were aware of the presence of the ships, but did not perceive them to be a threat as they were merchant ships. However, in 1942 the India Mission of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) at Meerut intercepted coded messages to German Navy U-boats, relaying detailed information on the positions of Allied ships leaving Bombay in the Indian Ocean . Subsequently, in autumn of that year forty-six Allied merchant ships were attacked. The SOE then discovered that

918-528: The site of the battle, with the help of one of the Germans who had chosen to remain in Goa. In 2017 the port announced that it would salvage the wrecks for scrap. In 2002, records released from the UK National Archives revealed that three of the Axis crew members had surrendered to the British and joined the SOE's operations in India, where they worked until they were allowed to go back to their country after

952-773: The time of 2011 Census of India, 42.68% of the population of Mormugao Taluka spoke Konkani , 16.68% Hindi , 12.37% Kannada , 7.90% Marathi , 6.00% Urdu , 2.32% Malayalam , 2.31% Lambadi , 2.05% Telugu , 1.55% Bhojpuri , 1.07% Bengali and 1.05% Tamil as their first language. Morumugão has one city: Morumugão - Vasco . Morumugão has three towns: Sancoale , Cortalim , and Chicalim . Morumugão has ten villages: Arossim , Cansaulim , Chicolna , Cuelim , Dabolim , Issorcim , Pale , Quelossim , São Jacinto Island , and Velsao . Morumugão has four islands: Ilha de São Jacinto , Ilha de Pequeno (Bat Island), Ilha Grande , and Ilha de São Jorge . Operation Creek Operation Creek , also known as Operation Longshanks ,

986-399: The twentieth century. A colourful city of officials, traders and migrant labourers, it had its Portuguese academies and British club life for several decades. Now rather scarred, Mormugão district continues to be unique in Goa. With Goa's airport at Dabolim , the railway terminus at Vasco da Gama, and the busy port, Mormugao is many visitors’ first experience of Goa. The area is part of

1020-590: The war effort. The members of the Calcutta Light Horse designed a memento for themselves: a seahorse . The Light Horse and the Calcutta Scottish were decommissioned in 1947 following the independence of India . It was only in 1974 that the British Government declassified documents of the operation. In 1951 the wrecks of the four cargo ships were salvaged by the Mormugao Port Trust , the port at

1054-431: The war ended. The records also suggested that Operation Creek was meant to capture the Axis ships, which was prevented by their crews scuttling them. The world became aware of the operation only in 1978, when the story of Operation Creek was told in the book, Boarding Party , by journalist James Leasor . It was dramatised in the 1980 film The Sea Wolves starring Gregory Peck , Roger Moore and David Niven . In

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1088-458: Was a covert military operation undertaken by Britain's Special Operations Executive in World War II on 9 March 1943. It involved a nighttime attack by members of the Calcutta Light Horse and the Calcutta Scottish against a German cargo ship , Ehrenfels , which had been transmitting information to U-boats from Mormugão Harbour in neutral Portugal 's territory of Goa . The attack

1122-595: Was averted when Sambhaji suddenly lifted the siege and rushed to defend his own kingdom from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb . The narrow escape, no less than the decline of the City of Goa, convinced the Portuguese viceroy, Dom Francisco de Távora , that he should shift the capital of the Portuguese holdings in India to Mormugao's formidable fortress. In 1685, the new city's principal edifices were under construction, with

1156-646: Was successful, and Ehrenfels and three other Axis cargo ships were sunk, stopping the transmissions to the U-boats. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, three DDG Hansa cargo ships, Ehrenfels , Braunfels and Drachenfels , took refuge in the port of Mormugão, Goa. This was because Portugal was neutral in the war while British India was not. In 1940, they were joined by an Italian ship, Anfora . All British citizens aboard were allowed to disembark. The crew soon ran out of supplies, so some of them left

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