BOMBAY DOCKS EXPLOSION

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This case study gives details information about the Bombay docks explosion that happened
in 1994.The ship SS fort Stikine is a huge cargo vessel that was built in Canada and
ordered by the American war shipping department. This ship was a floating bomb that
would reach Bombay on 12th April 1994 and two days later it would explode and cost
tremors all the way till Shimla which was 17000 kilometers away. The day of explosion
would come to be known as the day that it rained blood and gold on the streets of Bombay.
This case study also explains about the losses, suburban relief activities and aftermath etc.

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2. INTRODUCTION
The Bombay explosion (or Bombay docks explosion) occurred on 14 April 1944.In the
Victoria Dock of Bombay, British India (now Mumbai, India) when the
British freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, timber, oil, gold, and
ammunition including around 1,400 tons of explosives with an additional 240 tons of
torpedoes and weapons, caught fire and was destroyed in two giant blasts, scattering debris,
sinking surrounding ships and setting fire to the area, killing around 800 to 1,300
people. Some 80,000 people were made homeless and 71 firemen lost their lives in the
aftermath.

As part of the salvage operation, sub-lieutenant Ken Jackson, RNVR was seconded to the

Indian government to establish the pumping operation. He and chief petty officer Charles
Brazier arrived in Bombay on 7 May 1944. Over a period of three months, many ships were
salvaged. The de-watering operation took three months to complete, after which Jackson and
Brazier returned to their base in Colombo. Jackson remained in the Far East for another two
years, conducting further salvage work. For their efforts with the pumping operation, both
men were rewarded: Brazier was awarded the MBE, and Jackson received an accelerated
promotion. An Australian minesweeper, HMAS Gawler, landed working parties on 21 June
1944, to assist in the restoration of the port.

The details of the explosions and losses were first reported to the outside world by Radio
Saigon, a Japanese-controlled radio which gave a detailed report of the incident on 15 April
1944. British-Indian wartime censorship permitted news reporters to send the reports only in
the second week of May 1944. Time Magazine published the story as late as 22 May 1944
and still it was news to the outside world. A movie depicting the explosions and aftermath,
made by Indian cinematographer Sudhish Ghatak, was confiscated by military officers
although parts of it were shown to the public as a newsreel later.

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3. DETAILED CASE STUDY

3.1 Detailed information

The SS Fort Stikine was a 7,142 gross register ton freighter built in 1942 in Prince Rupert,

British Columbia, under a lend-lease agreement, and was named after Fort Stikine, a former
outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company located at what is now Wrangell, Alaska.

Sailing from Birkenhead on 24 February, via Gibraltar, Port Said and Karachi, she arrived at

Bombay on 12 April 1944. Her cargo included 1,395 tons of explosives including 238 tons of
sensitive an explosives, torpedoes, mines, shells, and munitions. She also
carried Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, raw cotton bales, barrels of oil, timber,
scrap iron and approximately £890,000 of gold bullion in bars in 31 crates. The 87,000 bales
of cotton and lubricating oil were loaded at Karachi and the ship's captain, Alexander James
Naismith, recorded his protest about such a "mixture" of cargo. The transportation of cotton
through the sea route was inevitable for the merchants, as transporting cotton by rail from
Punjab and Sindh to Bombay was banned at that time. Naismith, who lost his life in the
explosion, described the cargo as just about everything that will either burn or blow up. The
vessel was still awaiting unloading on 12 April, after forty-eight hours of berthing.

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, nor were
they able to find the source due to the dense smoke. The water was boiling all over the ship,
due to heat generated by the fire.

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 (7.5 mi) away. This and
a later second explosion were powerful enough to be recorded by seismographs at the Colaba
Observatory in the city. Sensors recorded that the earth trembled at Shimla, a city over
1,700 km away. The shower of burning material set fire to slums in the area. Around 2 square
kilometers (0.77 sq mi) were set ablaze in an 800 m (870 yd) arc around the ship. Eleven
neighboring vessels had been sunk or were sinking, and the emergency personnel at the site
suffered heavy losses. Attempts to fight the fire were dealt a further blow when the second
explosion from the ship swept the area at 16:34. Burning cotton bales fell from the sky on

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docked ships, the dock yard, and slum areas outside the harbor. The sound of explosions was
heard as far as 80 km (50 mi) away. Some of the most developed and economically important
parts of Bombay were wiped out by the blast and resulting fire.

fig.1 SS Fort Stikine

3.2 LOSS

The total number of lives lost in the explosion is estimated at more than 800, some estimates
put the figure around 1,300. More than 500 civilians lost their lives, many of them residing in
adjoining slum areas, but as it was wartime, information about the full extent of the damage
was partially censored. The results of the explosion are summarized as follows:

 Two hundred thirty-one people killed were attached to various dock services
including fire brigade and dock employees.
 Of the above figure, 66 were firemen.
 More than 500 civilians were killed.
 Some estimates put total deaths up to 1,300.
 More than 2,500 were injured, including civilians.
 Thirteen ships were lost and some other ships heavily or partially damaged.
 Out of above, three Royal Indian Navy ships lost.
 Thirty-one wooden crates, each containing four gold bars, each gold bar weighing
800 Troy ounces or almost 25 kg. (almost all since recovered).

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 More than 50,000 tons of shipping destroyed and another 50,000 tons of shipping
damaged.
 Loss of more than 50,000 tons of food grains, including rice, which gave rise to
black marketing of food grains afterwards.

3.3 SUBURBAN RELIEF ACTIVITIES

According to Mr.D.N. Wandrekar, a senior journalist in The Bombay Chronicle newspaper

dated 20 April 1944 stated that Mumbaikars are always known for their good heart which is
why around five days after the incident massive relief activities were shifted to the suburbs
owing to the neutralization of South Mumbai from the damages caused. Soon after the
calamity people from the affected areas began pouring into the suburbs. About six thousand
persons from the Mandvi area mostly middle class went to Ghatkopar. The workers and
others from Ghatkopar got the three schools opened for their accommodation and private
households also provided accommodation to these unfortunate families.

There was a rush of laborers from the dock areas who wanted to get out of Bombay on foot
by the Agra Road. Ghatkopar workers opened a kitchen for them at the Hindu Sabha Hall.
The kitchen served food for about a thousand persons twice daily. The Ghatkopar kitchen
was still running when Vile Parle's Irla residents started running a second center for about
500 persons, where food and lodging were provided for the refugees. A third kitchen was
opened at Khotwadi and Narli Agripada in Santacruz where about 300 people were being
served. In Khar, arrangements had been made to give rations to about a hundred persons who
have found accommodation in Kherwadiand Old Khar village. Khar Danda a fishermen's
village had decided for about a hundred people's accommodation and food. Many families on
the Salsette Island, also known as Mumbai Suburb opened doors to the needy. The rich have
come forward with big donations and youths, male and female organized into Volunteer
Corps have been doing all the labor for these different centers.

3.4 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 inquiry into the explosion identified the cotton bales as probably being the seat of the
fire. It was critical of several errors:

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 storing the cotton below the munitions,

 not displaying the red flag (B flag) required to indicate a "dangerous cargo on
board",
 delaying unloading the explosives,
 not using steam injectors to contain the fire, and
 a delay in alerting the local fire brigade.

Many families lost all their belongings and were left with just the clothes on their backs.
Thousands became destitute. It was estimated that about 6,000 firms were affected and
50,000 lost their jobs. 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 periodical dredging operations to maintain the depth of the docking bays, many intact
gold bars have been found, some as late as February 2011, and returned to the government. A
live shell weighing 45 kg (100 lb) was also found in October 2011. The Mumbai Fire
Brigade's headquarters at Byculla has a memorial to the fire fighters who died. National Fire
Safety Week is observed across India from 14 to 21 April, in memory of the 66 firemen who
died in this explosion.

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4. CONCLUSION
In 1986, late though the Government of India designated April 14 as Fire service day in
recognition of the valor and sacrifice of the firemen who lost their lives in the explosion ana
those who laid down their lives inline of duty. Today Mumbai has built a memorial in
Byculla to commemorate the 66 firefighters who lost their life in the dock explosion on 14 th
April 1994.Gold bars from fort Stikine were also discovered in February 2011 by workers
near the sea. All this remind us that our cities littered with small relics that remind us that the
big forgotten events of our history.

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5. REFERENCES

  "Explosion in Bombay". merchantnavyofficers.com. Archived from the original on 4

February 2012.
 https://www.slideshare.net/AbhishantBaishya/case-study-fire-in-ioc-terminal
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Jaipur_fire
 https://www.esri.in/~/media/esriindia/files/pdfs/events/uc2011/papers/
DM_UCP0014.pdf
  "HMHS Chantilly (1941)". Maritime Quest. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  "Explosion on Cargo ship rocks Bombay, India". History.com. Retrieved 15
September 2012.