On the afternoon of 14 April 1944, the city of Bombay, then the jewel of British India’s western coast, was shaken by a catastrophe so violent that it rivalled wartime bombings, despite being entirely accidental. A single cargo ship, anchored peacefully in the harbour, unleashed an explosion that tore through docks and the surrounding neighbourhoods. By nightfall, large parts of the city were burning, thousands lay dead or injured, and Bombay had suffered one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
A piece of propeller was flung away and landed in St. Xaviers High School, about 5 km (3 mi) from the docks. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
At the heart of the catastrophe was the British cargo vessel SS Fort Stikine, a Liberty ship built in Canada and operated by the British Ministry of War Transport. She arrived in Bombay Harbour on 12 April 1944, carrying a cargo whose variety would later prove disastrous. Packed into her holds were cotton bales, barrels of oil, timber, gold bullion, and most fatefully, ammunition, including high-explosive bombs, torpedoes and mines.
The presence of explosives was not unusual in wartime, but what made Fort Stikine uniquely dangerous was the sheer incompatibility of her cargo. Cotton and oil was prone to combustion, and explosives stacked nearby created a floating tinderbox. In fact, in Karachi, when the ship was loaded with cotton and lubricating oil alongside the explosives already in her cargo, the ship’s captain Alexander James Naismith lodged his protest. His words were prophetic: “We are carrying just about everything that will burn or blow up.”
When Fort Stikine berthed at Victoria Dock in Bombay, wartime secrecy forced her not to fly the customary red flag that would have indicated that it had sensitive cargo. This meant that dock workers and even many port officials were unaware of the full nature of what they were unloading.
On the afternoon of 14 April, dockworkers noticed smoke rising from one of the ship’s holds. Fire crews were summoned, and efforts were made to contain what initially appeared to be a routine dockside fire. Crucially, the ship was not evacuated immediately, nor was the surrounding dock area cleared.
Firefighters boarded the vessel and attempted to control the blaze. Unknown to them, the fire had already reached dangerously close to the explosives stored below deck.
It was only after some explosives caught fire at 3.45 p.m. that Naismith gave the “abandon ship” order. He went back to the ship for some last-minute rescue operations, along with his chief officer W.D. Henderson and marine surveyor C.W. Stevens.
They were at level with the stern when the first explosion occurred, freezing the tower clock hands at six minutes past four. Naismith and Henderson were never seen again, while Stevens survived.
The initial explosion was colossal. The blast shattered every building within a one-quarter mile radius flattening godowns (warehouse) and spewing thousands of tons of grain, food-stuffs, ammunitions and other materials out on the ground. Shockwaves shattered windows as far away as 12 kilometres. Fort Stikine split into half, hurling steel plates, cargo, and human bodies hundreds of metres into the air. A three-ton anchor from the ship landed 1,000 yards away.
Credit: The National Archives
But the worst was still to come.
Roughly 34 minutes later, a second explosion erupted as remaining ammunition detonated. The sound of explosion was heard as far away as 80 km. Sensors recorded the earth tremble at Shimla, a city over 1,700 km away. Burning debris rained down on warehouses, residential areas, and markets. Entire districts near the docks were engulfed in flames. The fire raged on for three days and nights as firefighters struggled to keep it under control. Gradually, the raging flames consumed themselves amidst the burning rubble, and the last embers burned out on May 1st more than two weeks after the accident. It took another seven months to remove around 500,000 tons of debris and bring the docks back into action.
The exact number of casualties remains uncertain, but conservative estimates place the death toll at around 800, while some contemporary accounts suggest figures exceeding 1,300. More than 1,500 people were injured, many suffering horrific burns or crush injuries. Tens of thousands were left homeless.
Among the dead were dockworkers, firefighters, soldiers, civilians, and even entire families living near the harbour. Many bodies were never recovered, vaporised or buried beneath collapsed buildings and burning debris.
Thirteen ships were lost and 50,000 tons of shipping was destroyed, and another 50,000 tonnes of shipping damaged. Also destroyed were more than 50,000 tonnes of food grains.
Credit: The National Archives
One particularly grim detail was the rain of gold: the ship had been carrying gold bullion intended for the Reserve Bank of India. A gold bar crashed through the roof into Burjor Cooverji Motiwalal’s flat in Girguam. He surrendered it to the police and was rewarded with a cheque of Rs 999, which he donated for relief work. Much of the gold was recovered, but many bars were never found.
Despite its scale, the Bombay Explosion quickly faded from international headlines. World War II dominated global attention, and colonial authorities were reluctant to highlight failures in wartime logistics and safety. No public inquiry fully satisfied questions about why such dangerous cargo had been allowed to be stored together or why evacuation procedures were not followed more swiftly.
The disaster did, however, lead to changes in port safety regulations, cargo handling protocols, and emergency response planning in Indian ports. Yet for many survivors, these reforms came too late.
Today, 14 April is observed as the National Fire Service Day in India in remembrance of the firefighters who lost their lives and those who continued to contain the fire. Additionally, National Fire Safety Week is observed across India from 14 to 21 April.
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