Naval and Maritime Academy turns 45

By Dr. Ajith C.S. Perera

The life on board a sail ship is unique and all have to depend on wave, wind, tide and current for successful navigation.

Systematic comprehensive naval training is an indispensable requirement to transform young recruits into Naval Service Professionals in preparation for real life combat situations and for the progress and development of the service.

The Naval and Maritime Academy (NMA), located within the SLN Dockyard, Trincomalee and first established on 15 January 1967, was formally commissioned on 18 July 1967 with Instructor Commander M.G.S. Perera, its founder, as its first commandant.

As a result of Commander Perera’s painstaking pioneering efforts with commitment and foresight backed by the quality of teaching and the dedication of seven other members of the ‘Instructing Team’ have seen this naval academy growing from strength to strength, sailing through prosperity and hard times, peace and war, tranquillity and tremendous change.

The Navy, being the first line of defence in an island nation such as ours, requires high calibre people in the execution of its arduous task. The knowledge, discipline, leadership, dedication to the country and professionalism shown by them in battle as well as in peace fulfilling admirably this need, can be attributed to the best training the academy strives to provide.

Today, after 45 years of its commissioning NMA still remains the main training establishment to enhance the manpower training capabilities of the Sri Lanka Navy.

It has even sprung to fame as a degree awarding naval academy receiving university status in 2001 and also as the solitary naval establishment to be awarded with the President’s Colours on 13 December 2003.

Training in those formative years

After the establishment of the Royal Ceylon Navy in 1950 December, the need for officer training came to light.

With its expansion and the high cost of overseas training of officers, the Navy first ventured out to establish a training unit in Diyatalawa.

Thistle Camp and four married quarters were taken over from the Air Force and Army respectively and H.M.Cy.S. Rangalla was commissioned on 28 August 1951 with M. G. S. Perera as the first as well as the one and only Instructor (Training) Officer in our then one-ship Navy. With modest facilities and just a single Instructor Officer, training in the first decade was a herculean task. It was limited to naval indoctrination and basic professional training.

As the cadet intakes grew in numbers and frequency, further expansion of training became essential and seven assistants with university degrees were taken in.

H.M.Cy.S. Rangalla at Diyatalawa hence became the first ship to be manned entirely by Instructor Officers with Instructor Lieutenant Commander M.G.S. Perera as the commanding officer – the first non-executive branch officer to be appointed to command a ship. Tragically, the Navy was requested to handover Diyatalawa to the Army in 1963.

It was the time in our own country when vital awareness of maritime aspects and development set in. Its utmost importance and value began to surface. The then ‘Captain of the Navy’ Rear Admiral Rajan Kadirgamar MVO, brother of the late Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, identified the need to re-assess the entire structure of Navy’s own in-service training and its objectives along with the establishment of a proper formal Naval training academy.

Unsung hero of the NMA

As the first issue of ‘Vidusuidu’ – the then official journal of the NMA – reports: “The gigantic tasks of designing, planning and creating – all entrusted on the shoulders of that man again, Instructor Commander M.G.S. Perera. He was not only assigned the laborious task of transforming the old neglected buildings at Dockyard Trincomalee but to give life to NMA to achieve this goal.”

The result was the birth of NMA on 15 January 1967 in less than a year’s time and it turned out to be the end of the vital beginning to a long journey ahead.

NMA was then formally commissioned on 18 July 1967 with actual training commencing in just three more days time – training not only generations of officers and sailors of the Navy but personnel from Fisheries Corporation, Police Department and also Merchant Navy Cadets for the Ceylon Shipping Corporation. Many of those NMA then trained went to sea with ‘NMA’ Certificates.

In spite of limited training facilities and resources compared to the present day, NMA, even then, received some international recognition for its successful training capabilities for a large number of officers and sailors. It is considered an extraordinary achievement through the outstanding performance of a handful of committed people as a team, through sheer hard work, great sacrifice and unvanquished dedication, in an era where modern facilities and technology were never dreamt of. As stated in his esteemed writings by Instructor Lieutenant Commander SLN (Rtd.) Somasiri Devendra, one of the first seven senior assistants of the pioneering team of Instructors, the Navy was fortunate to have in the 60-decade:

“There are many training institutions in the Navy today, but the Academy stands tall above them – the first and the best. To understand what I say one must understand the environment in which the Academy was born.

“It was born of a Navy much derided, lacking a single craft that mounted a gun that speak in anger; a Navy which had all its sold off, and many of its best properties taken away; a Navy where no recruitment was permitted, no intake of officer cadets and no training of any kind. A Navy like a battered hulk, left to rot for many years.

“What turned the Navy round was the Academy. And the Academy was M.G.S. Here he built up a group of us and brought us together as a team with commitment and devotion who not only literally resurrected the Navy, but also planned the Navy of the future.

“The Academy under M.G.S. – the Teacher to the Navy – literally made swords out of ploughshares. We were his tool-kit and he the master craftsman.”

Sailing ahead

With the rapid expansion of the Navy, a separate wing for officer training (OTW) was established in 1990. With this, further expansion of the nautical school into the specialisations of Gunnery and Anti-submarine warfare school along with language, humanities and computer department came into being.

Today, even degree courses are conducted by the NMA. Bachelor of Science degrees accredited to the University of Kelaniya includes Naval Studies in Maritime Warfare, Naval Studies in Land Warfare and Naval Studies in Logistic Management.

The Junior Naval Staff Course was inaugurated on 7 March 2005. Its aim is to enhance the theoretical and practical knowledge on naval administration and staff skills of junior officers of the Sri Lanka Navy in order that they would perform their duties in a most efficient manner.

Further efforts have been taken to offer a Postgraduate Diploma for officers who successfully complete the course, with the accreditation of certain training courses conducted at NMA to Kotelawala Defence University (KDU).

Recently sea cadet assessment camps have also been initiated at NMA where cadets are evaluated under several areas which include seamanship and naval knowledge, map reading, knots and usage of ropes and endurance march and afforded the opportunities to visit naval ships.

The NMA continues to strive to achieve international standards and holds the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Certification awarded by the Sri Lanka Standard Institution.  However, regardless of the changes in structure and facilities and organisation that future circumstances will necessitate, the primary aim of NMA training will continue to remain the same – the inculcation of those ideals of duty, naval discipline, character, courage and honour, so very essential in Naval service and no less important in other maritime profession.