(Retd) Commander Mohan Narayan: 'It was a disaster waiting to happen'

The smoke swallowed it all Lives property and the reason that caused it The cloud of grey that billowed after the Bombay docks explosion on April 14 1944 has been long extinguished but the littleexplored reasons behind the tragedy continue to stoke up the academic interest of Commander Mohan Narayan IN Retd After seven months of extensive research and ahead of the explosions 75th anniversary Narayan who has been the longestserving curator of the Maritime History Society MHS Mumbai will deliver a public lecture in the cityApart from taking listeners through what caused the tragedy he will also draw parallels between how the officialdom failed the city then and continues to do so todayEdited excerpts from an interviewWhat drew your attention to the Bombay docks explosionLet me first point it out that I am not a historian And if you want to be charitable call me a history buff Part of my job as curator of the MHS from 2000 to 2015 was studying this episode and a lot has been written about it I am not being presumptuous here but what people covered was what happened after the explosion the loss of lives property the impact and sound of the explosion the gold that people continued to find much later Not many actually wrote or spoke about why it happened and so I wanted to bring out that story Was it just an accident or was it a disaster waiting to happenTop and above The aftermath of the explosionAnd which one of the two was itIt happened during Second World War and during wartime a lot of safety regulations that are otherwise adhered to are given a go Because of that in the guise of wartime exigencies what happened on the freighter Stikine was unfortunate Every regulation on embarking hazardous and explosive cargo was flouted In fact the captain of the ship had raised concerns about the cargo which included cotton sulphur lubricating oil in leaking drums and explosives What happened inside the Port Trust was another aspect There was callous attitude displayed by people handling the cargo ammunition otherwise not allowed in the dockyard during peaceful times was let in There were errors of judgement and lack of common sense It was a collective failure When we look at it from the wisdom of hindsight it was a disaster waiting to happen that could have been avoidedHow did you piece together the narrativeAfter working on it for seven months there came a stage when I nearly gave up Except one book by American writer John Ennis on the explosion I didnt come across any literature by Indian authors But I couldnt go by just one book But I had read that there was an enquiry commission set up for this So when I got hold of its report it became my primary referenceYou find the tragedy symptomatic of our timesYes it brings to mind the hoary clicheacute of the spirit of Mumbai when the officialdom fails people Even in 1944 there were 20 to 25 instances when the common man rose to the occasion Then there were the firemen who manned the entire stretch of Mohammad Ali Road and created a firewall to prevent fire from spreading westward Thats why April 14 is commemorated every year as National Fire Service Day The Bombay port was of strategic importance and to rebuild it the army was roped in They got the port going in six months If the explosion was testimony to mans folly the reconstruction of the port and docks was the epitome of mans ingenuityON April 10 6 pmAT Visitors Centre Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalya FortCALL 22844484Commander Mohan NarayanA relic in safe custodyCommander Narayan speaks of how few Mumbaikars who lived in the city at the time of the explosion are alive today But if you wish to get a glimpse of its magnitude St Xaviers High School in Fort has kept a relic from that fateful April day in 1944 in safe custody Such was the impact of the explosion that a shred of the Canadianbuilt Americanowned and Britishoperated ships propeller landed in the schools compoundCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates