Thilawa1942.com founder Emir Solanki lost his great-grandfather in the tragedy. The SS Thilawa was carrying silver bullion when it was torpedoed. The gold bullion was recovered in 2017.
Survivors and relatives of the deceased from the SS Thilawa, known as the Indian Titanic, which sank after being torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the tragedy in Durban last weekend. We gathered together.
The SS Thilawa steamer, commanded by Captain F. Robertson, was transporting mostly Indian nationals from Mumbai (then Bombay) to Mombasa, Maputo and Durban, but sank just two days after leaving India. .
At midnight on November 23, 1942, two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine struck the ship near the Seychelles.
It was the only passenger ship to sink in the Indian Ocean during World War II.
The ship carried 732 passengers, 222 crew members, four gunners, and 6,472 tons of cargo, including 60 tons of silver bullion to be delivered to the South African government for coinage.
Many of the passengers were poor Indians and merchants such as shoemakers, tailors, and jewelers seeking opportunities to do business overseas. However, some people never reach their dream destination.
A total of 280 passengers and crew were killed, and the survivors spent two days and nights adrift in lifeboats or clinging to tree splinters, before being rescued by the SS Birmingham on the third day.
recovered silver bullion
The silver bullion sank with the ship and was recovered from the bottom of the Indian Ocean in 2017 by Argentum Exploration, an ocean salvage company owned by British billionaire Paul Saul Marshall.
This sparked a long legal battle between Argentum Exploration and South Africa over compensation for operating costs. The issue was finally settled when Britain's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that South Africa had no obligation to recover approximately $43 million worth of silver from the company.
This weekend, survivors and relatives of the deceased will gather for the third commemorative event, with previous events held in Mumbai in 2022 and London in 2023. They shared stories gleaned from oral histories and information about the ship gleaned from informal surveys. It has been excavated for many years.
Guests from around the world who attended the hybrid event included Kash Kumar, father of one of the deceased passengers, Nathibhai Chibabai, and his son Emir, who hosted the first event in 2022. Solanki was included.
Under the banner of the non-profit organization SS Thilawa Foundation, each family does their own research and tells their stories to local newspapers and broadcast stations, reaching people around the world from Canada to the United Kingdom to India to South Africa. We are connected.
The organization was established to preserve the memory of the sinking of the ship and its passengers, and to connect survivors and families of the victims.
Speaking at an event in Durban, Emir Solanki, founder of Thilawa1942.com and whose great-great-grandfather died in the tragedy, said several things, including that the SS Thilawa will be allocated space in a museum being developed in the UK. A special announcement was made.
“A museum will be built on the site where the ship was built, at Kelly’s Wharf in Hebburn.” [at the Hawthorn, Leslie & Company shipyard] The museum will now have a permanent space dedicated to this tragedy. The project has not yet been submitted to planning and could take three to five years to complete,” Solanki said.
Mr Solanki also announced that a one meter long handmade model of the SS Thilawa was built in Mauritius.
A video highlighting the origin and sinking of SS Thilawa, belonging to the British Indian Steam Navigation Company, the silver coin recovery operation, and interviews with survivors and their families, was shown for guests.
It included the account of survivor Chunilal Navsaria, who is believed to be the first person to conduct extensive research on the ship and the tragedy.
Several families shared stories of their loved ones and how they became connected to the foundation.
selfless act
He also highlighted the bravery of a survivor who gave a life jacket to his brother, and the bravery of a mother who loaded two young children into a lifeboat but died while trying to pick up a third.
One of the most dramatic testimonies shared was by Imran Bobat, a member of the SS Thilawa Foundation, who narrated how his father, Ahmed Bobat, survived. Like many survivors, his father didn't say much about the incident, he said.
“He said that the Japanese warned Captain F. Robertson twice before firing the torpedoes, but Captain Robertson did not listen. His father said that when the first torpedo hit, all “I said hell broke loose. Imagine the Titanic: explosions, electrical explosions, people screaming, crying, blood, babies falling overboard,” he said.
“There's a good reason we call it the Indian Titanic. It was a drama beyond our imagination. My father said he couldn't swim to save his life.
“For years, my father never wanted to talk about the incident. Every time he went to the beach, he had a distant look in his eyes. You understand,” he said.
“My father ran into the room, grabbed the eider and the rope, and jumped into the sea. He couldn't get into the lifeboat. He sank into the Indian Ocean. The second time he surfaced and was about to sink, but the third “The second time, I desperately surfaced and grabbed the crew member's belt. Thank God for that belt,” Bobat said.
“He said in just six words, 'I can't swim.'” Save me. 'The crew said, 'No, we can't save you.' And he tried to push my father away. My father said, “If you can't save me, I'll never let go of your belt and I'll drag you down with me.'' I'm not proud of my dad for saying that, but he was desperate,” Bobat said.
“My dad held on to the belt and eventually they pulled him up over the railing,” he said.
shark, barracuda circleare doing
He said 11 other men were sitting on the railing, and the railing could not support everyone's weight, so they took turns holding on to a rope to dangle into the water.
“But my father said that as the ship sank, the concentric circles that formed sucked people in and if they fell into the circles they would die. Luckily he was able to get out of the circle and the ship went into the Indian Ocean in disgrace. It sank. And my father said it was midnight. Fortunately, it was a moonlit night, November 23, 1942, but it was terrifying,” Bobat said.
“He said…the sharks were constantly circling the trees, and I think they were hungry. There were barracuda. said that he was dying of thirst in a sea of water.
“The waves were about two or three stories high. He said they were crests of waves – and you're on a little railing floating.”
“On the third day, Wednesday morning, as the ship was floating at sea, my father saw out of the corner of his eye the SS Birmingham coming from Liverpool. He had an old man on the railing. His name was Bab I think it was. He said, “Bub, come on, I'm going home.” And this is probably the most dramatic part of the story,” he said.
“When Bab looked up and saw the SS Birmingham, when he looked down at the ship that would take them home, his heart exploded with joy, and he died. He died happy. Literally. He survived the bombing. He survived the hypothermia, the sharks, the hunger and thirst. Allah said, “You're coming with me.” I was told. They buried him at sea. Then my father returned to India on the SS Birmingham,” he said.
Ashraf Roumani, another member of the foundation, said the sinking of the SS Thilawa left many children orphaned, two of them a mother and an uncle.
“I am the grandson of Sheikh Hussein and Habiba Badi. My aunt was also on the ship. Unfortunately, my grandparents died on the ship with my aunt, but my mother and uncle survived,” he said. said.
“My mother at age 5 and my uncle at age 4 were instantly orphaned and raised by different people at different times on two different continents. , and was raised by a variety of parents. And luckily, my mother had an uncle and an aunt in India who raised her and loved her as if she were their own.” said.
Roumany said each family has a different perspective on what this tragedy means and how it has unfolded over the past 82 years.
“The way they took the silver out of the ship was a travesty. They plundered the ship. They cut it in half to get the silver. They respected the fact that this was a war grave. “I didn't have it,” Roumane said.
“More than eight years later, they continue to commit heinous crimes against the passengers of the SS Thilawa. I'd like to put things into perspective about the boat's commander's motives, which remain a mystery.For an hour between the first torpedo and the second, the U-boat's captain Robertson “There was a lot of speculation that they had engaged the captain and that he had abandoned ship before the passengers,” he said.
“They were ordinary working-class people trying to build a life for themselves: shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, jewelers, people coming to visit loved ones, people settling in South Africa or Mombasa; “People just returning home, men and women, children without any weapons. They were torpedoed not once, but twice, by a Japanese submarine, which is unprecedented.”
“I don't know of any other war crimes of that nature, certainly not during World War I and World War II, but even more recently. And if you think about it, today, if there was a “If someone had to sink a passenger ship without any reason, the whole world would be outraged,” Roumaneny said.
