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The Bombay Explosion (or Bombay Docks Explosion) occurred on April 14, 1944, in the Victoria Dock of Bombay (now Mumbai) when SS Fort Stikine carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold, ammunition including around 1,400 tons of explosive caught fire and was destroyed in two giant blasts, scattering debris, sinking surrounding ships and killing around 800 people. Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. There are several places called Victoria Dock. Royal Victoria Dock, London Victoria Dock, Liverpool Mumbai ( Marathi:,, IPA: formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Mumbai ( Marathi:,, IPA: formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial
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The vessel, the voyage and cargo
The SS Fort Stikine was a 7142 gross ton freighter built in 1942 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, under a lend-lease agreement. Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada.
Sailing from Birkenhead on February 24 via Gibraltar, Port Said and Karachi, she arrived at Bombay on April 12. Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. Events 303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar Port Said ( Arabic بورسعيد transliterated Būr Saʻīd) is a northeastern Egyptian city near the Suez (ڪراچي) is the largest city in Pakistan. It is the world's second largest city proper behind Mumbai in terms of population which exceeds 10 million Events 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
The ship carried
- explosives
- munitions
- Spitfires
- raw cotton bales
- oil barrels
- timber
- scrap iron
- gold bullion in 12. An explosive material is a material that either is chemically or otherwise Energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material usually accompanied Ammunition, often referred to as ammo, is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit Lumber or timber is Wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural Material for Construction, or Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 This article discusses buying gold as an investment. Gold price The usual benchmark for the price of gold is known as the London Gold Fixing, a twice-daily 73 kg bars valued at £1–2 million.
One officer described the cargo as "just about everything that will either burn or blow up". The vessel berthed and was still awaiting unloading on April 14.
The Incident
In the mid-afternoon around 14. 00, the crew were alerted to a fire onboard. Burning somewhere in the No. 2 hold, the crew, dockside fire teams and fireboats were unable to extinguish the conflagration, despite pumping over 900 tons of water into the ship, or find the source due to the dense smoke.
At 15. 50 the order to abandon ship was given, and sixteen minutes later there was a great explosion, cutting the ship in two and breaking windows over 12 km away. The two explosions were powerful enough to be recorded by seismographs at the Colaba Observatory in the city. Around two square miles were ablaze in an 800-metre arc around the ship, eleven neighbouring vessels were sunk or sinking, and the emergency personnel at the site suffered heavy losses. Attempts to fight the fire were dealt a further blow when a second explosion from the ship swept the area at 16. 34.
It was that time of World War II when Japan was advancing fast and had almost reached Burma. An attack on India was highly expected any time. Away from the docks, people suspected a Japanese attack and many fled the city. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics.
Aftermath
It took three days to bring the fire under control, and later 8,000 men toiled for seven months to remove around 500,000 tons of debris and bring the docks back into action. The official death toll was 740, including 476 military personnel, with around 1,800 people injured; unofficial tallies run much higher. In total, twenty-seven other vessels were sunk or damaged in both Victoria dock and the neighbouring Prince's Dock.
Many families lost all their belongings and were left with just the clothes on their back. The government took full responsibility for the disaster and monetary compensation was paid to citizens who made a claim for loss or damage to property.
During normal dredging operations carried out periodically to maintain the depth of the docking bays one or two gold bars were found intact sporadically as late as the 1970s and returned to the British government. Once in every few years, gold bricks are recovered from Mumbai harbour, reminding everyone of the great tragedy, even after six decades of the incident. Mumbai Fire Brigade's headquarters at Byculla has a memorial built in the memory of numerous fire fighters who died during this explosion. The Mumbai Fire Brigade is responsible for the provision of fire protection in the City of Greater Mumbai as well as responding to building collapses drowning cases gas Byculla or Bhaykhala is a Neighbourhood in South Mumbai. It is also the name of a Railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on Fire Safty Week is observed in all over Maharashtra from 14 april to 21 april in memory of Fire fighters who died in this explosion
Also See
External links
- The Great Bombay Explosion by John Ennis
- Ship Explosions: SS Fort Stikine, Page 7-10
- The Great Bombay Explosion By Lawrence Wilson
- Bombay Harbour Explosion
- The day it rained gold
- Ships lost in the Bombay Explosion
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