Qualla: 1944 Bombay Explosion https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: 1944 Bombay Explosion https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion 1944 Bombay Explosion: Introduction https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion/ Photo credit Nicholas (Nichalp), CC BY-SA 3.0. Captain Alexander James Naismith looked at the cargo manifest and recorded his protest. The SS Fort Stikine was carrying, as he put it, "just about everything that will either burn or blow up." He was not exaggerating. Packed into the 7,142-ton freighter were 1,395 tons of explosives, 238 tons of sensitive munitions, torpedoes, mines, shells, Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, 8,700 bales of raw cotton, barrels of lubricating oil, timber, scrap iron, and 31 crates of gold bullion worth approximately 890,000 pounds sterling. On 14 April 1944, in the Victoria Dock of wartime Bombay, the ship caught fire. Naismith did not survive what happened next.

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/te7g-1944-bombay-explosion-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full 1944 Bombay Explosion: A Cargo That Should Never Have Been https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion/ Photo credit Nicholas (Nichalp), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Fort Stikine had been built in 1942 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, under a lend-lease agreement, and was named for the Stikine River. She sailed from Birkenhead on 24 February 1944, stopping at Gibraltar, Port Said, and Karachi before arriving in Bombay on 12 April. The ...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/te7g-1944-bombay-explosion-a-cargo-that-should-never-have-been.mp3 0:06 2 full 1944 Bombay Explosion: The Day Bombay Burned https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion/ Photo credit Nicholas (Nichalp), CC BY-SA 3.0. When the fire reached the explosives, the Fort Stikine detonated in two massive blasts. The first explosion scattered debris across the docks; the second, at 16:34, swept the area with devastating force. Burning cotton bales rained from the sky onto docked ships, the dockyard, an...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/te7g-1944-bombay-explosion-the-day-bombay-burned.mp3 0:06 3 full 1944 Bombay Explosion: Neighbors Feeding Neighbors https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion/ Photo credit Nicholas (Nichalp), CC BY-SA 3.0. In the days following the explosion, the survivors poured out of devastated South Mumbai into the suburbs. About 6,000 people from the Mandvi area, mostly middle class, went to Ghatkopar, where local workers opened three schools for emergency housing and private families took in ...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/te7g-1944-bombay-explosion-neighbors-feeding-neighbors.mp3 0:06 4 full 1944 Bombay Explosion: Gold in the Rubble https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion/ Photo credit Nicholas (Nichalp), CC BY-SA 3.0. Wartime censorship delayed the truth. The first detailed report of the disaster reached the outside world not through British channels but through Japanese-controlled Radio Saigon, which broadcast an account on 15 April, the day after the explosion. British-Indian authorities did...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/te7g-1944-bombay-explosion-gold-in-the-rubble.mp3 0:06 5 full 1944 Bombay Explosion: Memory in Flame https://qualla.com/1944-bombay-explosion/ Photo credit Trinidade, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1944 Bombay explosion ranks among the largest non-nuclear blasts in history, comparable to the 1917 Halifax Explosion. It devastated a city already strained by war, wiped out critical port infrastructure, and killed hundreds of people whose names were never fully recorded bec...

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]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/e/7/g/1944-bombay-explosion-wp/te7g-1944-bombay-explosion-memory-in-flame.mp3 0:06 6 full