Iconic train: The Boat Mail on the platform of the Dhanushkodi pier, with a steamer in the background. After the 1964 cyclone, the train was operated from Chennai to Rameswaram and the ferry services were stopped.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
InFocus
The Boat Mail Express, a unique blend of rail and sea travel, was an iconic service that connected India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for more than half-a-century. This distinctive service between Madras and Colombo not only showcased the ingenuity of transport in its era but also became a vital lifeline for trade and travel between the two nations across the Palk Bay, leaving a lasting legacy in the history of South Asian transport.
The origins of the Boat Mail Express, also called the Indo-Ceylon Express, date back to the late 19th Century, when a train service was introduced between Madras and Tuticorin (Thoothukudi), further linking Ceylon by sea. In his book The Great Indian Railways: A Cultural Biography, Professor Arup K. Chatterjee wrote, “Under the South Indian Railway, the Boat Mail was started and it created a passenger route from Madras Egmore to Ceylon. In the last decade of the nineteenth-century, a train route was extended from Madras to Tuticorin, from where passengers could take a ferry to Ceylon (170 miles).”
Following the inauguration of the famous Pamban Bridge in February 1914, the Boat Mail began operating between Madras and Dhanushkodi. Ferry steamers were operated from Dhanushkodi to Talaimannar in Ceylon, a distance of 22 miles. From Talaimannar, another train took the passengers to Colombo.
‘Sickening sea crossing’
In the The Hindu column ‘Madras Miscellany’, historian S. Muthiah wrote in 2012 about his experience of travelling in the Boat Mail. He said, “From the 1930s to the 1950s, I regularly used to travel between Ceylon and India by train, with a rather sickening one-and-a-half-hour sea crossing in between. It was only recently I discovered that this route was finalised 100 years ago this year [2012], when there was an agreement signed between the South Indian Railway Company and the British India Steam Navigation Company (BI) on rights of business.”
While referring to the agreement, Muthiah wrote, “All traffic from stations south of Madurai to Colombo and vice versa would continue to be routed via Tuticorin, from where B.I. steamers would take them [passengers] to Colombo. The new route via Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar was to get the traffic from all other stations of the South Indian Railway to Colombo and vice versa.”
Piers built at Dhanushkodi, Talaimannar
He also noted that piers were constructed at Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar for three 688 tonne, 260-foot-long turbine steamers designed by Sir William White. They were ordered from A.J. Innis Ltd. in Glasgow. They were called the Curzon, Elgin, and Hardinge, and were launched in 1912 and 1913. Later in the 1930s, they were replaced by Irwin and Goschen. A report published in The Hindu on January 2, 1965, recollected nostalgic memories of a retired railway official, who joined the South Indian Railway in 1912 and retired 38 years later, and a retired captain of Irwin, a Frenchman domiciled in India. They narrated their experience of the Boat Mail and ferrying passengers.
According to the retired railway official, the activities of the South-East Asia Command of the British government during the Second World War threw a huge burden on the Indo-Ceylon Express as it had to run large numbers of troops between India and Ceylon (Kandy was the headquarters of the South-East Asia Command under Lord Louis Mountbatten). The retired captain had said he had carried 3,000 labourers from India and about 350 tonnes of cargo in Irwin. A severe gale that shook Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar in 1931, almost for a day, on December 23, and Irwin’s voyage to Talaimannar was perilous and there were 700 European passengers aboard. But the boat reached Talaimannar safely.
Tickets at any station
Under an arrangement between the shipping company and the Railways, passengers bound for Talaimannar could get tickets at any station in the State for travel by the Boat Mail. The ferry service fare from Talaimannar included the rail ticket charges. The Colombo Port came in handy for South Indians who travelled to Australia and Great Britain. They preferred the Boat Mail to proceed to Colombo.
As people of repute and foreigners travelled by this train, it was equipped with a canteen on wheels. There were an adequate number of luggage vans for transporting goods to Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi, as there was no road connectivity between the mainland and the island till 1988 and the Pamban rail bridge was the only transport link, the report noted. Leaders and prominent personalities like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar also travelled in the Boat Mail, The Hindu had reported.
In August 1952, the Boat Mail had made the headlines for a different reason. The headless body of a man was found in a trunk in a carriage of the train. A few days later, his head was found bobbing in the sea off Royapuram in Chennai. The victim was Chennai-based businessman Alavandar. It came to be known as the ‘Alavandar Murder Case’. This murder to this day remains one of the most chilling and intriguing crimes, involving a woman, reported in the State in the 20th Century.
Cyclone destroys Dhanushkodi pier
A devastating cyclone on December 24, 1964, washed away Dhanushkodi town, the pier, and a passenger train headed for Dhanushkodi from Pamban. Following this disaster, the Railways operated the train from Chennai to Rameswaram and the ferry services were stopped.
Published – April 08, 2025 10:28 pm IST