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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dafydd, post: 26217016, member: 86815&quot;]<b><i>SS Tilawa Tragedy - &quot;The Indian Ocean Titanic&quot;.</i></b></p><p><br /></p><p>These coins turned up this week after an epic journey from the USA via France and as a result of the EBay Global Shipping Program was hit with extra charges.&nbsp; Lessons learnt but back to the thread as I am delighted with the coins that were struck to perpetuate the memory of the sinking of the&nbsp; SS Tilawa.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1674273[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1674274[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1674272[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>This is the privy mark on the Britannia. An anchor with the date 1942 and SS Tilawa above.</p><p><img src="https://www.acheter-or-argent.fr/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/acheter-or-argent-1-oz-britannia-2025-tilawa-privy-mark-_1.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>And this is the privy mark of the Krugerrand.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.acheter-or-argent.fr/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/acheter-or-argent-1-oz-krugerrand-2025-tilawa-privy-mark-_2.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>SS Tilawa was an ocean liner of the British India Steam Navigation Company launched in 1924. She was the only passenger liner sunk during World War 2, targeted by a submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean on 23 November 1942, with the loss of 280 lives. HMS Birmingham and S.S. Carthage rescued 678 people. The survivors were extremely lucky as the Imperial Japanese Navy did not usually rescue or assist survivors and in fact went out of their way to murder them in cold blood including civilians. Ironically the Japanese upheld many of the traditions and structures of the British Royal Navy but chivalry and decency were not included and they had no respect or mercy for their defeated adversaries even if they had shown outstanding courage and resolve.</p><p><br /></p><p>Many years ago, I read this book by Dr Mark Felton which makes grim reading.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1674279[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The ship carried a cargo of 60 tonnes of silver bullion that was secretly recovered by a salvage company in 2017. This led to a legal dispute over ownership of the cargo between the salvors and the government of South Africa, the original owner of the silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>The salvage was accomplished at a huge depth and transported to the UK and surrendered to the Receiver of Wrecks. The Salvors assumed that as it was a British Shipwreck the UK government could confirm ownership and salvage rights to them and this initially was granted in the Salvors favour but later overturned in the Supreme Court.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is easy to find the full story online,&nbsp; but skip Wickipedia and browse this superb website set up by a descendent of a Tilawa casualty; <a href="https://tilawa1942.com/silver-bars-part-2" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://tilawa1942.com/silver-bars-part-2" rel="nofollow">Silver Bars - Part 2</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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