Dara (ship)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The Dara was a motorized combined ship of the British shipping company British India Steam Navigation Company , which was put into service in 1948 and brought passengers, mail and cargo from the Indian subcontinent to Saudi Arabia . On April 8, 1961, there was a violent explosion in the Persian Gulf on the ship that was en route to Basra . Fire broke out, lifeboats crashed, towing attempts failed and the day after that the Dara sank . 238 passengers and crew members were killed. The presumption that a bomb attack had been committed on the ship could never be clearly proven. The Dara Incident is considered to be one of the greatest disasters affecting British shipping after the Second World War .
The ship
The 5,030 GRT motor ship Dara was built at Barclay, Curle and Company in the Glasgow district of Whiteinch for the British India Steam Navigation Company, a British steamship company founded in 1856 and based in London. The shipping company specialized in the transport of people and freight from Indian ports such as Calcutta or Bombay , but also from Sri Lanka and Singapore to the Persian Gulf region . On December 17, 1947, the 121.5 meter long ship was launched and on June 30, 1948 it was completed.
The Dara transported passengers, mail and cargo from India to various ports on the Persian Gulf such as Dubai , Basra and Kuwait . However, she was registered in London. She had a sister ship , the Dwarka (III) (4,851 GRT), which was completed in June 1947 and was in service until 1982. British citizens who held posts in the Saudi Arabian region were often on board. The ship had a total passenger capacity of 1451 people in three price categories.
Downfall
On Thursday, March 23, 1961, the Dara departed from Bombay for another crossing to the Gulf region. Captain Charles Elson was in command. There were 819 people on board, including 132 crew members , 613 passengers (76 cabin passengers and 537 deck passengers) and 74 members of the port staff. The ship entered Dubai on April 7, where cargo was unloaded and passengers disembarked while others came on board. Meanwhile, strong strong winds and stormy rain set in, which made it impossible to continue loading and boarding. When the Dara collided with a Greek tanker , Captain Elson decided to get his ship out of the harbor. There was no longer any time to disembark the 80 passengers who actually wanted to leave the ship in Dubai. The Dara was anchored outside the city the following night.
At 4:40 a.m., a violent explosion rocked the ship, completely destroying the second class area. The alarm went off immediately. Captain Elson radioed for help and ordered the ship to be abandoned. Panic broke out on board. Attempts to control and extinguish the fire failed because the explosion had destroyed all on-board operating systems. There was no more electric light, the ship could no longer be steered and the fire hoses had no water pressure.
The fire, which spread very quickly over the passenger decks due to the still prevailing strong winds , also destroyed several lifeboats . Several other boats were overcrowded and overturned , throwing their occupants into the stormy seas. Other lifeboats could not be launched at all. In the panic, many passengers jumped overboard. Since the light had failed, the scene was only illuminated by the glow of the flames. A second explosion shook the ship. It was so loud and powerful that you could hear it in nearby Umm al-Qaiwain and see the flames.
At around 6:30 a.m. on April 8, the burning ship was evacuated. British, German, Japanese and Norwegian ships as well as the US destroyer USS Laffey were nearby taking in survivors. 238 people were killed in the incident, including 19 officers, 113 other crew members and 106 passengers. Dozens were seriously injured as third-degree burns , cuts, bruises, etc. to nearby hospitals brought. Many suffered from shock and exhaustion. Three British frigates and a US destroyer sent men aboard the Dara to take control of the fire. The Glasgow salvage ship Ocean Salvor attached hawsers to the distressed vessel in order to be able to tow it to Dubai, but on April 10 at 09.20 a.m. the Dara sank about three miles from the city at the position 25 ° 34 ′ N , 55 ° 27 ′ O .
It was never clear what caused the explosion on board the Dara . For decades, rumors lingered that it was a time- detonated bomb used by an Omani rebel . The bomb was originally supposed to explode when the ship entered Muscat , but due to the stormy weather conditions in Dubai that forced the Dara to retreat, the bomb went off in the open sea. No one has ever confessed to a bomb attack, and nothing has ever been properly proven. The wreck of the Dara lies at a depth of 15 meters on its starboard side and has broken into three parts. The wreck has been a popular diving destination since the 1970s.
literature
- PJ Abraham. Last hours on Dara . Peter Davies (London), 1963
- Jay Robert Nash. Darkest Hours . Nelson-Hall (Chicago), 1976