Only a couple of weeks ago I received a text from Captain Divekar that he was undergoing tests in a hospital. News made me feel somewhat uneasy. Talking was inconvenient due to the time difference as I was in the US. On 5 May he died 26 days shy of his 87th birthday.

Suresh Mahadev Divekar joined the training ship Dufferin in 1952 and after passing out sailed on ships of India Steamship Co. of Calcutta. On obtaining a master’s (FG) certificate he joined New India Assurance Co. while it was still a Tata concern, in their marine division. He was an active member of the Company of Master Mariners of India. When New India posted him in Delhi, he used his stay to  organize and  establish a chapter of CMMI there. Captain Divekar’s opinion was always valued in the court of wardens of CMMI to which he was elected on several terms. He stubbornly avoided, however,  becoming its master.  With his wife Surekha, the couple was a usual sight at all social functions of CMMI. Dedicated all his life  to the specialized subject of marine insurance,  Divekar was a household word whenever any topic regarding insurance came up in India’s shipping fraternity.

Convivial in nature, his help and friendly advice was sought by the mariners posted ashore when in doubt as to whether a particular act would be covered or not covered by insurance. When the ‘Alondra Rainbow’  hijacker pirates’ trial took place in Mumbai sessions court, her Japanese master flew in to give evidence as a main witness. For security reasons the master was not easily contactable. It was Captain Divekar who helped CMMI that time to invite the master through his relations with the prosecuting attorney for narrating his personal real life experience of the hijacking  and subsequent rescue of himself  and his crew. After retiring Captain Divekar became even more active as a visiting lecturer in many nautical institutes that have come up. Travelling long distances to the institutes did not deter him. He  also became  managing director of Risk Control Rating Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Diwali or new year he never failed to compose a humorous anecdote, always directed to himself, and post it like season’s greetings to all his friends in the maritime circle. A keen admirer of Veer Savarkar, he travelled with the party which visited Marseilles in 2010 on the hundredth anniversary of Savarkar’s celebrated jump there from a porthole of his ship. I met him in the Andamans when he had come to visit the cellular jail at Port Blair.

With his passing I have lost a well wisher and India’s maritime fraternity an icon. Captain Divekar leaves behind wife Surekha, two married daughters, thousands of his students and friends.

Marex Media