Hi Roland I am not sure of the answer to your question but I think the passenger demand for the trips 'overode' fears by the British of attacks on passenger ships across the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean was never a real theatre of war at the time and I am pretty certain that the Tilawa was the only passenger ship sunk mid-ocean. However, I have heard from at least one Goanetter that in the coastal area of Bombay, there were other attacks. The film The Sea Wolves depicts this situation quite dramatically even though, as a sceptic, I found the film rather unreal but OK for Hollywood consumption!
Cargo ships closer to the African coast were sunk by German craft and I am pretty sure the African Dawn was one such ship sunk by the Graf Spee (spelling?) before she went across to the Atlantic and came to a dramatic end outside Montevideo harbour, Uruguay. I have yet to see if there are other responses to my piece on the Tilawa but am aware that there are other Goanetters who could throw more light on the sinking. I know Mervyn Maciel (in London) who was orphaned by the sinking of the Tilawa. Further, Cliff Pereira, a local Goan historian, close to where I live, has done much work on the maritime situation during the war and has indeed compiled a list of war-time Goan deaths at sea. These appeared on Goanet a little while ago. It must be borne in mind that the passenger ships also carried a great deal of cargo. The ships were quite large, (10,000 tonnes plus)and their holds were used (apart from bulky passenger luggage) to cary cargo for the war effort. Unfortunately, the Indian contribution of raw materials, as well as millions of men in arms, is rather overlooked in history books re the British war effort. Rumour has it that the British were using passenger ships to ship gold from India to East Africa to help the war effort. But if the Tilawa was supposedly doing this, it would hardly be sunk as the gold (if any) would be lost for sure. However, all I remember being told was that the Japanese submarine first requested the Tilawa to stop to be searched. However, when the Tilawa captain assumed he could outrun the sub, it got torpedoed and sunk. Details of the exact loction of the sinking, the name of the Japanese submarine captain, submarine number and class, as well name of the Tilawa captain lie somewhere in the depths of loads of my papers at present! I am not aware that passenger shipping was stopped by the Brits across the Indian Ocean during the entire war. However, at the entrance to Mombasa harbour, a massive chain barrier was lowered and raised throughout the war. It blocked the entry of any enemy submarines which could cause havoc to the very large docks if they slipped in. When lowered, it allowed the passage of friendly craft including the large passenger ships criss-crossing to India and other parts of the world. Regards Cornel PS Before someone is tempted to say that ships across the Indian Ocean were not stopped by the British because Indian lives were cheap, I hasten to add that many Brits also used the same ships. These were often colonial administrators with families etc and the ship captains and senior personnel were all Brits at the time. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roland Francis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 3:52 AM Subject: Re: [Goanet] Of Goans killed on the 'Tilawa' by a submarine inWorld War II > Cornel, very interesting, the memories. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
