# The Bombay Explosion 1944



## manowari (Feb 2, 2009)

Can anyone help with pix relating to the Bombay Explosion when the SS Fort Stikine exploded and destroyed part of the dock area in 1944. Thank you.


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## stores (Apr 8, 2007)

*bombay*

hi do these help , STORES


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## macrae (May 11, 2006)

Hi manowari,
A friend of mine when a young girl can remember the explosion and has written a short book about the experience. Her father was the harbour master in Bombay at the time.

As I remember it was an ammunition ship which exploded in the harbour and caused major destruction and death 
Seems the ship was also caring wool above the ammunition and think the wool got wet and seeped down into the cargo below and somehow self ignited.

I will ask to see the book again but it will not be before December as she is away on holiday till then.


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## rickles23 (Oct 13, 2006)

Hi manowari,
Can you send me your email address by PM and I can supply you with photos.
Regards


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## Tony D (May 2, 2004)

My father was in Bombay serving with the DEMS when that explosion occurred,I don't know what ship he was serving on at the time or what part he played in the aftermath as like many of his generation he spoke little of his wartime experiences to us kids.
I listened in on a conversation he was having with my uncle re this and I remember a small booklet full of pictures about the Bombay explosion but that will be long gone I suspect.
I remember a thread on this event coming up in another forum and someone supplying a link to a quite a detailed article with pictures online,might be worth you doing a google search.
A quick google search 
http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/bomEx.html

PS,I seem to recall reading that one of the last of the gold bars was dredged up from the Harbor quite recently


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

Try for the book, Bombay Explosion, by John Ennis, published by Cassel in 1959.
It is stated that the s.s. Jalapadma was left high and dry on the quay by a 60ft. tidal wave!


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## manowari (Feb 2, 2009)

*Bombay explosion*

Many thanks for all the interesting replies. My email [email protected]


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## rickles23 (Oct 13, 2006)

Hi manowari,
Email sent.
Regards


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## vic pitcher (Oct 20, 2004)

manowari said:


> Can anyone help with pix relating to the Bombay Explosion when the SS Fort Stikine exploded and destroyed part of the dock area in 1944. Thank you.


As I mentioned in a recent posting about obscure ports, I sailed with a survivor of the explosion J.H. Longmire (Jack Longmire) who was a Master with John Manners for many years.
As a war time Indian Navy Officer, Jack was Staff Salvage Officer in Mumbai and was in the vicinity of Fort Stikine when the explosion occurred. Apparently, he was discovered, still alive, in a pile of corpses loaded on to a cart.
When I sailed with him in the early sixties, he seemed quite unaffected by his ordeal; he was a genial, agreeable man with whom I got on very well, I was 2nd mate at the time. Interestingly enough, the Mate of the ship was a notorious character, who was sailing under false pretences as his Master's Certificate had been cancelled as a result of his role in the "Sunprincess/Geologist" collision of 1955, but that is another long story. 
I was in e-mail touch with Jack's son in Australia some years ago, who told me that on retirement, Jack settled as a "hobby farmer" somewhere in W.A. until his death.


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## wallyhog (Aug 10, 2009)

*SS Fort Stikine*

I have been looking for information on the Stikine since I found a report of a Q convoy WW2 that mentioned a survivor of a sunk freighter, who was a survivor of the Stikine.

I do have some information, but I am interested in Dems Gunlayer RN AB Roy Hayward who was on the SS Belray and performed heroic deeds after the Bombay explosion.

I tried to find out whether his deeds had been recognised by the RN or anyone else, apparently not!

He is not listed on the CWGC web site so I assume he survived the war.

I have tried to find him, his family or relatives, through genesreunited, also without success.

I feel that he should be a star on someones Hayward family tree.

Twenty-year-old Able Seaman Roy Hayward, R. N., had been drafted as (DEMS] gunlayer to the armed cargo ship Belray which was lying three hundred yards from the Fort Stikine with a broad quay between them. When the explosion came several Indian workers on board the Belray were gruesomely injured and Hayward spent some time carrying them one by one to the quay from where transport took them to hospital. Then he helped to put out some fires on the boat deck, after which he noticed a big warehouse ablaze on the north side of the dock near a Burmah Shell oil storage depot. Some firemen were already working there and he joined them until, looking back, he saw the Belray was burning again. He did a very lot more of fire and rescue work.

wallyhog


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