According to the police, the 90-foot long sailing vessel, Sabira Al Sarani, on its return from Dubai with a consignment of dates, sank at around 2.30 am after it hit against some unidentified underwater obstacle. It was one of several vessels which ply regularly between Mumbai and the Gulf, carrying similar cargo.

Police said the captain of the ship, Ismail Ayub Jawala, along with his assistant rushed towards the engine room to find that sea water had begun rushing into the boat through a gaping hole created after a few wooden planks of the ship were destroyed upon impact with the obstacle.

Jawala along with others on board frantically began scooping out the water. They were also assisted in the exercise by the crew of a passing vessel, but when their efforts proved futile, Jawala signalled the control room of the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT)at around 1 am.

The boat sank at around 2.30 am after all the crew members aboard the ship were rescued by Payal, an MbPT-owned vessel, which went to the spot along with two police-owned vessels, police added.

As the size of the vessel was relatively small, rescue operations by the Navy or the Coast Guard were not initiated.

Senior MbPT officials could not ascertain whether the boat had hit the Prongs Reef or the wreckage of the merchant ship Arcadia Pride which sank at the same spot in 1997. An MbPT official said that the dhow of the boat, which had sunk in about 28 feet of water in the port, did not pose a navigational hazard.