• In 1942 Royal Indian Navy launched Artificer Training at Bombay, 4 years course to have highly technical personnel for Navy. Those people had various kine of training to meet the current and future requirement of Navy. Initially Royal Indian Navy trained artificers in UK. Eventually the Artificers training was shifted to India and it evolved with time. Today INS Shivaji conducts Mechanical Engineering, INS Valsura trains Electrical Artificers, Shipwright curriculum is done in INS Viswakarma and INS Garuda does Naval Aviation Engineering.

The tough training schedule, working as a team in various projects, playing together, exercising jointly and living all together for four years bonded us well. We became Partners for ever. The exact origin of term ‘Partner’ is difficult to ascertain. It may be attributed to the interdependency among artificer apprentices in the training school barracks. Perhaps it was due to sharing a double decker bed where a senior occupied the lower bunk and the junior slept in the upper bunk. The senior guided his junior in-service operations, class studies, project works, sport, day-to-day activities.

We stood for each other in difficult times and in happy times. The bond was (and still is) unique, and we called each other PARTNER. Later instead of addressing a senior as ‘Sir’, we addressed each other ‘Partner’. It created a deep attachment without discrimination of class, seniority or achievement, which continued from training establishment to the active service and beyond it to the retired life. We are Engineers educated in different Indian Navy Engineering Schools for 4 served in Indian Navy with pride.  

January 18 each year is the ‘Partner’s Day’.