I was 18 years old at the time, and busy tutoring two high school students in a mansion on Worli hill, far from the scene of the disaster. The three of us, sitting at a table by a window, suddenly found the wall of the building bulging towards us; almost simultaneously we heard the roar of the second explosion. A very heavy cloud of smoke had risen up from Mazagon Docks and was hanging over that area; a small plane flying around the cloud gave rise to rumours that the Japanese were bombing the city.
I left right away for my family flat in Byculla on Spence Road, just off Victoria Garden Road and at the foot of Mazagon Bridge. Thousands of people were streaming north along VG Road, carrying bundles on their heads, the remnants of their possessions. The adults carried babies in their arms, while older children trudged alongside.
Later that afternoon we heard the tinkling of a bell and a tiny fire engine drove in all the way from Pune!
The fire blazed for several days and nights, and at night we could hear the crackling of the flames, which were raging unchecked and leaping from building to building. Eventually the army demolished entire rows of buildings to create a kind of fire break that the flames could not leap across.
Our family had had a black family retainer, Cachucha, whom we had lost track of for years, but she established contact during those difficult days. Fortunately she had not been affected, but had become concerned about our safety.
Best regards,
Victor
-----Original Message-----
From: Frederick Noronha (FN) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: goanet@goanet.org
Sent: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 01:53:42 +0530 (IST)
Subject: [Goanet]When 'Fort Stikine' blew up in Bombay
This week marked the 61st anniversary of the 1944 dockyard blasts, which was caused by a massive fire and explosion on board the British freighter Fort Stikine. The vessel was moored at the Bombay docks, was carring 1300 tonnes of TNT at the time of the blast, and caused a destruction of a total of 27 ships and killed an estimated one thousand people, according to the Indian Express!
This was during World War II.
Was wondering if any Goans in Mumbai of that time recall the incident, or their parents talking about it... It must have been quite a tragedy; Naresh Fernandes and Jerry Pinto's co-edited book on Mumbai/Bombay have an essay on this theme. FN
_____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa \ __\/ \ India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org \/ ----------------------------------------------------- Sign up for low-volume, high-quality news summaries and updates from Goa at http://newsfromgoa.swiki.net * It's free and volunteer-driven.
