Emile Solanki, founder of tilawa1942.com, whose great-great grandfather died during the tragedy. The SS Tilawa was carrying silver bullion when she was torpedoed. The bullion was recovered in 2017.
Relatives of survivors and those who died when the SS Tilawa, known as the “Indian Titanic”, sank in a Japanese Imperial Army torpedo strike during World War II, gathered to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the tragedy in Durban over the weekend.
The SS Tilawa steamship, under the command of Captain F Robertson, which was transporting mostly Indian citizens from Mumbai (then Bombay) to Mombasa, Maputo and Durban, sank just two days after it set sail from India.
In the dead of night on 23 November 1942, two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine struck the vessel near the Seychelles.
It is the only passenger liner to have been sunk in the Indian Ocean during World War II.
The vessel was carrying 732 passengers, 222 crew, four gunners and a cargo of 6 472 tonnes, including 60 tonnes of silver bullion that was to be delivered to the South African government to mint coins.
Many of the passengers were indigent Indians and tradesmen such as cobblers, tailors and jewellers, who were seeking opportunities to ply their trades abroad. But some of them would never arrive at their dream destination.
A total of 280 passengers and crew died and those who survived spent two nights and days adrift in lifeboats or holding on to wood debris before they were rescued by the SS Birmingham on the third day.
Silver bullion recovered
The silver bullion sank with the ship, to be recovered from the bottom of the Indian Ocean in 2017 by the marine salvage firm Argentum Exploration, owned by UK millionaire Paul Saul Marshall.
This sparked a protracted court battle over compensation for the cost of the operation between Argentum Exploration and South Africa. The matter was finally settled when the UK supreme court of appeal ruled that South Africa did not owe the company anything for recovering the silver, which is valued at about $43 million.
This weekend, the relatives of survivors and of those who died gathered for the third commemorative event — previous events were held in Mumbai in 2022 and in London in 2023 — and to share stories gleaned from oral history and information about the vessel that their informal research has unearthed over the years.
Guests from around the world who attended the hybrid event included UK radio broadcaster Kash Kumar, whose father, Nachchhibhai Chibabhai, was one of the passengers who died, and his son Emile Solanki, who hosted the first event in 2022.
Each family’s independent research efforts and the telling of their stories to local newspapers and broadcasting channels has connected people around the world — from Canada to the UK, India and South Africa — under the banner of the nonprofit SS Tilawa Foundation.
It was formed to preserve the memory of the sinking of the ship and its passengers and to connect the survivors’ and victims’ families.
Speaking at the event in Durban, Emile Solanki, founder of tilawa1942.com, whose great-great grandfather died during the tragedy, made several special announcements, including that the SS Tilawa would be allocated a space at a museum being developed in England.
“At Kelly’s Wharf in Hebburn, a museum will be constructed where the ship was built [at the Hawthorn, Leslie & Company shipyard] and there will be a permanent place in this museum dedicated to this tragedy. The plan has not been submitted to planning yet and it could take three to five years to complete,” Solanki said.
Solanki also announced a one-metre handmade model of the SS Tilawa had been built in Mauritius.
Videos highlighting the origins and sinking of the SS Tilawa, which belonged to the British India Steam Navigation Company, the operation to salvage the silver as well as interviews with survivors and their families were played for guests.
They included the account of survivor Chunilal Navsaria, who is believed to be the first person to do extensive research on the ship and the tragedy.
Several family members spoke about their loved one’s stories of surviving the event and how they came to connect with the foundation.
Selfless acts
They also highlighted the bravery of survivors, one who gave a lifejacket to his brother, and another about a mother who placed two small children on a lifeboat but died when she went to fetch a third child.
One of the most dramatic accounts shared was by SS Tilawa Foundation member Imran Bobat, who told how his father, Ahmed Bobat, survived. Like many of the survivors, he said his father did not speak much about the incident.
“He said that the Japanese warned Captain F Robertson twice before they fired the torpedoes and Captain Robertson didn’t listen to them. My father said that when the first torpedo struck, all hell broke loose. Picture the Titanic: explosions, electrical explosions, people screaming, crying, blood, babies falling overboard,” he said.
“There’s a good reason why we call it the Indian Titanic. It was drama beyond our imagination. My father said he couldn’t swim to save his life.
“My father didn’t want to ever speak about this incident for many years. He had that far-away look in his eyes whenever he went to the ocean. You can understand the extent of the post-traumatic stress that they went through,” he said.
“My father ran into a room, grabbed some eiderdowns and some rope and jumped into the ocean. He couldn’t get onto a lifeboat. He went sinking down into the Indian Ocean. He came up and was sinking down the second time, and frantically came up the third time and grabbed the belt of a crew member. Thank God for that belt,” Bobat said.
“He said six words only, ‘I can’t swim. Please save me.’ The crew member said, ‘No, I can’t save you.’ And he tried to push my father away. My father said, ‘Well, if you can’t save me, I’ll never let go of your belt and I’ll pull you down with me.’ I’m not proud that my father said that, but he was desperate,” Bobat said.
“My father held on to his belt, and eventually they pulled him up … onto a piece of railing,” he said.
Sharks, barracudas circling
He said there were 11 other men sitting on the railing and they had a piece of rope on which they were taking turns to hold and dangle in the water because the railing could not hold the weight of everyone.
“But my father said that as the ship sank, the concentric circles that were created sucked the people in, and if you fell into the circle, you’d be dead. Fortunately, he fell out of that circle, and the ship sank ingloriously into the Indian Ocean. And then my father said it was midnight. Fortunately, 23 November 1942 was a moonlit night, but it was horrific,” Bobat said.
“He said … sharks would continuously circle their piece of wood. And I think the sharks were hungry. There were barracudas. My father said that as he floated on the wood, they were dying of thirst in a sea of water.
“The waves were two to three stories high. He said they were mountains of waves — and you are on a little piece of railing floating.”
“On the third day, on Wednesday morning, as they floated in the ocean, my father, from the corner of his eye, saw the SS Birmingham, which was hailing from Liverpool. He had an old man on the railing with him, I think his name was Babu. He said, ‘Babu, look, we are going home.’ And this is probably the most dramatic part of the story,” he said.
“Babu looked up and when he saw the SS Birmingham, when his eyes fell on the ship that was going to take them home, his heart burst with joy, and he died. He died of happiness. Literally. He survived the bombing. He survived hypothermia, the sharks, the barracudas, the hunger and the thirst. It was time to go home. Allah said, ‘You’re coming with me.’ They buried him at sea. And then my father returned on the SS Birmingham to India,” he said.
Another foundation member, Ashraf Roomaney, said the sinking of the SS Tilawa left many children orphaned, two of which were his mother and uncle.
“I’m the grandson of Sheik Hussain and Habiba Bardey. I also had an aunt who was on the ship. Unfortunately, my grandparents perished aboard the ship together with my aunt, but my mom and uncle survived,” he said.
“Mom at the age of five and my uncle at the age of four became instant orphans and were reared in two different continents by different people at different times. My uncle remained in South Africa, Kimberley, and he was reared by various parents, some good and some not so good. And my mom, fortunately, had an aunt and uncle in India who reared her and and loved her as if she was their own,” Roomaney said
Roomaney said each family had a different perspective on what the tragedy meant and how it has played out over the past 82 years.
“It’s a travesty, the manner in which they extricated the silver from the ship. They plundered the ship. They cut it in half to get to the silver. They had no respect for the fact that this was a war grave,” Roomaney said.
“Eight odd years later, they continue to commit heinous crimes against the passengers of the SS Tilawa. And I want to put things in perspective about the actual torpedoing of the ship, the motive for the U-boat commander, it remains a mystery. There was a lot of speculation that for one hour between the first torpedo and the second torpedo, the U-boat commander had engaged Captain Robertson, who abandoned ship before — before — the passengers,” he said.
“These were ordinary, working-class people trying to make a life for themselves, shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, jewellers, people coming to either visit their loved ones or settle in South Africa or in Mombasa or just returning home, men, women and children, not carrying any arms at all. They got torpedoed, not once, but twice by the Japanese submarine. It’s unheard of,” he said.
“I don’t know of any other war crime of that nature, certainly not during World War I and World War II, and not in recent times. And if you think about it, in today’s time, if somebody had to sink a passenger liner in today’s time, without a good cause, the entire world would be outraged,” Roomaney said.