INS Chapal-Warship Museum, Karwar

INS Chapal is an Indian Navy Ship and was in active service during Indo-Pak war of 1971. INS Chapal is fairly small in size compared to today's mega ships. It is officially classified as a boat- OSA II class sleek missile boat (OSA II is Russian classification of Project 205 U, 32 such boats were built.), whose duty is to cruise at faster speeds and bombard the enemy target with missiles.

After close to 3 decades of serving the nation, INS chapal today rests on the shores of Rabindranath Tagore beach, Karwar. It is one of the 3 ship museums in India and probably the only one in Karnataka.

We stopped by this ship for sometime and took a walk inside. Below are some photos and details of INS Chapal.

Other information: The warship is open to tourists, but at specific timings- between 10AM to 1PM and 4.30PM to 6 PM (timings can vary a bit at the discretion of staff). There's a small entry fee and a video is shown to tourists, highlighting abilities of Indian Navy.

History: During 1971 Indo pak war, INS Chapal, code named K94, played a vital role in obtaining total supremacy across the western frontier.  INS Chapal bombarded Karachi town with its missiles, while blocking any trade or military movement in the sea, causing large scale devastation to Pakistan's commercial town. This aided in India's victory and the crew of INS Chapal were awarded multiple awards, including 2 Param Veer Chakras, 8 Veer chakras and many more.

Watch below video for more detail's of Operation Trident and Python

Reference:
1. Bharat Rakshak website listing India's OSA Class 2 ships
2. Wikipedia on OSA Class

INS Vikramaditya was also docking in Karwar during our visit. But that warship was not open to public.

Some of the photos were clicked by Vasudha

Also see: Inside Submarine Museum (Malmo, Sweden) , Submarine toilet Operating Procedures and Submarine Musem-Vizag