SAILING BOAT - FATEH AL KHAIR DHOW

Whenever one would pass by the waterfront part of the Kuwait Scientific Center, one cannot miss the old sailing boats in dhow harbour and the beautiful Fateh Al Khair,  a surviving deep sea sailing ship from the pre-oil era, that is displayed as an exhibit. Fateh Al Khair  is 19.8 meters long, 8.1 meters wide and 4.9 meters high. This ship was designed and built in Kuwait in 1938. The building of the ship took 18 carpenters who worked 60 days round the clock and cost approximately 17,000 rupees, which was the currency prevalent at that time. The dhow is made from Indian timber and weighs 95 tons when empty and can sail up to 13 knots.

Fateh-El-Khair travelled as a cargo ship from India to Africa. It had the capacity to  approximately 226 tons. It carried dates from Basra, Iraq and would trade them for tea in India and wood from Africa. The journey took seven months and went to several exotic ports. Merchants on this ship traded dates in Mangalore, India for tiles and in Zanzibar the ship would take on mangrove poles to use in the building of Arabian houses. Fateh Al Khair travelled so until 1952, after which oil was discovered.

Here are some pictures I took.

Fateh Al Khair