SS Tilawa

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History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameSS Tilawa
Owner House Flag of the British India Steam Navigation Company.svg British India Steam Navigation Company
Builder Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn
Yard number530
Completed1924
Identification
FateTorpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-29, 23 November 1942
General characteristics
Type Ocean liner
Tonnage10,006  GRT
Length137.5 m (451.12 ft)
Beam18.1 m (59.38 ft)
Decks3
Installed power4-cylinder quadruple-expansion steam engine; output: 900 nhp
PropulsionSingle propeller
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Capacity3,290 passengers

SS Tilawa was an ocean liner of the British India Steam Navigation Company launched in 1924. She was the only passenger liner sunk during World War 2, targeted by a submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean on 23 November 1942, with the loss of 280 lives.

Contents

The ship carried a cargo of silver bullion that was secretly recovered by a salvage company in 2017. This led to a legal dispute over ownership of the cargo between the salvors and the government of South Africa, the original owner of the silver.

Design

The Tilawa was a 10,000-ton steam passenger liner of the British India Steam Navigation Company, built in 1924 by Hawthorn Leslie & Co. Ltd. at Hebburn-on-Tyne. [1] The ship had three decks and a passenger capacity of 3,290, including 60 in first class and 74 in second class. [2]

Sinking

In late November 1942, the Tilawa sailed from Ballard Pier in Bombay (now Mumbai), bound for Durban followed by Mombasa and Maputo. Acting as a troopship during the Second World War, [3] the ship carried 732 passengers and 222 crew [1] and 600 tons of cargo, including 2,391 bars of silver bullion [4] intended to be struck as South African and Egyptian coinage at the South African mint. The cargo was valued at £35 million ($45 million) in 2024. [4] [5] [6] On 23 November, the Tilawa was torpedoed by the submarine I-29 of the Imperial Japanese Navy, near the Seychelles Islands. After the first torpedo hit, the lifeboats were launched; a second torpedo then sank the ship. [2] 280 people went down with it. Survivors spent two days adrift. In the early hours of 25 November, HMS Birmingham, which had been alerted to the sinking, arrived and rescued 678 people. RMS Carthage was sent to search for additional survivors and rescued 4. [3]

Discovery and salvage

In December 2017, Argentum Exploration, a marine salvage company founded by racing driver Ross Hyett and owned by investor Paul Marshall, with the assistance of maritime historian Nigel Pickford, located the wreck of the Tilawa at a depth of approximately 2.5 kilometres (8,200 ft; 1,400 fathoms; 1.6 mi) and secretly recovered 2,364 (98.9%) of the silver bars. [4] [6] [7] The company declared it to the Receiver of Wreck in the United Kingdom, but South Africa, which had meanwhile signed a contract with a different salvor in ignorance of the successful recovery, [8] asserted legal ownership in 2018 and further denied the obligation to pay a recovery fee because the cargo had been a state possession and being transported for a sovereign, not a commercial purpose. [5] [6] An initial ruling for Argentum by the High Court of Justice was unsuccessfully appealed by South Africa. [5] [7] In May 2024, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom reversed the ruling, upholding the South African position. [6]

Legacy

The Tilawa came to be known as the "Indian Titanic", a reference to the 1912 sinking of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean with a large loss of life. In 2022, a memorial event took place in Bombay to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Tilawa's loss. [9] [10]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "RMS Tilawa (+1942)". Wrecksite . Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Sea Breezes". 2002. p. 393.
  3. 1 2 Bertke, Donald A.; Gordon Smith; Don Kindell (2014). World War II Sea War. Vol. 7 The Allies Strike Back. Dayton, Ohio: Bertke Publications. p. 339. ISBN   978-1-937470-11-1.
  4. 1 2 3 Knight, Sam (4 November 2024). "The Shipwreck Detective". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on 6 November 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 "Case Preview: Argentum Exploration Ltd v Republic of South Africa". UKSCBlog – UK Supreme Court Blog . CMS News. 19 December 2023. Archived from the original on 22 December 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Waterson, Jim (8 May 2024). "GB News joint owner loses fight over £34m of secretly salvaged silver". The Guardian .
  7. 1 2 Brown, David (12 October 2022). "Victory for wreck hunter in battle over £32m bounty of silver". The Times .
  8. ↑ Jordan, Bobby (10 December 2023). "Did SA miss the boat on sunken treasure?" . Sunday Times . South Africa.
  9. ↑ Chitnis, Purva (26 December 2022). "Survivors of 'Indian Titanic' SS Tilawa that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine". ThePrint . Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  10. ↑ Kamalakaran, Ajay (29 November 2022). "Remembering the 'Indian Titanic' that was sunk by the Japanese". Scroll.in . Retrieved 16 May 2023.
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