PANAJI
While all and sundry were immersed in the solemnity and celebration of the feast of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa on Tuesday, a group from the miniscule fishing community of the capital city which plies their trade in the Mandovi river lit candles and offered prayers at the cross near the Panaji ferry wharf.
The cross where they prayed is a memorial for 81 people, who 123 years ago met a watery grave while on their way to participate in the solemnity and celebrate the feast of the Spanish saint at Old Goa.
According to an account by the Goan Catholic priest and historian, the late Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas, the launch ‘GOA’ had capsized on its short ride from Verem to Panaji on the Mandovi river on December 3, 1901.
There were around 170 passengers, dressed in their festive best on board and 81 of them, mostly hailing from the villages along the northern bank of the river, drowned. They were all on their way to Old Goa, to participate in the solemn feast Mass of St Francis Xavier, Fr Mascarenhas writes.
The dead included 34 males and 47 females, including 15 children -- twenty-one from Saligao, seventeen from Calangute, twelve from Reis Magos, ten from Candolim, six each from Nagoa and Parra, two each from Siolim, Nerul and Pilerne while one each from Arpora, Anjuna and Panaji, according to Fr Mascarenhas’ account written back in 2012.
Goan diaspora builds memorial
The cross which stands to date near the Panaji ferry warf, now swarmed by advertising billboards of the Casino industry, is a memorial for these 81 victims of the ‘GOA’ launch capsizing tragedy built by the Goan diaspora from Aden and installed there on December 3 1904.
The cross bears on its pedestal plaques with a Portuguese inscription which roughly translated in English reads: “In memory of the unfortunate 81 victims of the tragedy of the launch GOA that took place on 03-12-1901, this unique landmark is dedicated by the Goan diaspora of Aden requesting all those who pass by this place, to say a prayer for their eternal repose.”
The memorial cross stands to this day at the original spot and its pedestal was recently renovated.
Sancoale nuns’ founder Fr Faustino was survivor
Interestingly, among the survivors of that tragedy was Fr Faustino de Souza, then eight, who went on to become a Catholic priest and founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Family of Nazareth (SFN) in Sancoale, Goa housed in the ancestral home of St Joseph Vaz in 1935.
Fr Faustino himself gives an account of his surviving the tragedy in “The Seer and the Server” published by his Congregation in 1993.
