# Mini Episode 004 - The Night It Rained Gold

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 5 Jan 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/113532289/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-0-5%2F415528787-44100-2-d71f98e2571b6.mp3

Vineeth delves into some forgotten Indian history - the night it rained gold in Mumbai!!! You can reach us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areyouquizzingme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/areyouquizzingme Email: areyouquizzingme@gmail.com Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/areyouquizzingme Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@areyouquizzingme/podcasts

## Transcript

[0:00] Aditya and I are on a one week break for the new year and we'll
[0:03] be back next week with a regular quizzing episode to keep your
[0:06] trivia taste but standalized. We'll be having a mini episode,
[0:10] something we haven't done in two years.
[0:12] So welcome everyone to Are You Quizzing Me?
[0:14] Your favorite quizzing and trivia podcast show.
[0:17] And this is mini episode #4 the night it rained cold.
[0:22] Welcome to Are you Quizzing me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:27] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:30] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:33] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:36] Let's get quizzing. On February 2011, construction
[0:41] workers dredging Mumbai's Victoria Dock made a startling
[0:44] discovery. 2 gold bars, 1 weighing 100 grams and the other
[0:48] 50 grams unearthed from the muddy harbour floor.
[0:51] Their markings confirming that they were part of an 890,000 LB
[0:55] consignment aboard the British freighter s s Fort Stikin.
[1:00] The event responsible for the goal ending up there had faded
[1:03] into relative obscurity. An event that was equal parts
[1:06] horrifying and tragic, the legacy of which is still
[1:10] relevant today. The S S Fort Stikin was a 7142
[1:16] ton British freighter built in Prince Rupert, BC in 1942 as
[1:21] part of the Canadian wartime shipbuilding program, the
[1:24] equivalent of the American Liberty Ships.
[1:26] Captained by Alexander and James Nismith, she departed from the
[1:30] Birkenhead, England on February 24th, 1944, carrying cargo that
[1:35] would prove deadly. The manifest revealed the
[1:38] fundamental problem. The ship was essentially a
[1:41] floating tinderbox containing fundamentally incompatible
[1:45] materials. The explosives portion comprised
[1:47] approximately 1400 tons of high explosives, including 200 plus
[1:52] tons of pure TNT, along with 240 tons of torpedoes, mines, bombs,
[1:58] shells and incendiary ammunition.
[2:00] This alone was dangerous enough, but the ship's hold also contain
[2:04] bales of raw cotton between 8700 to 31 thousand.
[2:08] Sources vary on the number barrels of lubricating oil, 800
[2:12] tons of sulfur, timber, scrap iron and most remarkably
[2:16] approximately £890,000 worth of gold bouillon in 31 crates, each
[2:23] weigh containing 4 bars weighing roughly 25 kilograms each.
[2:27] When the Ford Stickeen loaded additional cargo ordered Karachi
[2:31] on March 30th, 1944, Captain Naismith formally protested to
[2:36] the authorities. His protest was prophetic.
[2:38] He described the cargo as quote just about everything that will
[2:42] burn or blow up. His warning was ignored.
[2:45] In normal beast time conditions, no such cargo mixture would have
[2:48] been permitted. Before World War 2, explosives
[2:51] were even prohibited from talking at port.
[2:53] They had to be anchored far away and transferred via lighters,
[2:57] which were small boats designed for harbor work.
[3:00] However, war time regulations, relaxed under a certificate of
[3:03] urgency, allowed explosives to dock directly provided that they
[3:08] received priority for unloading. When the Fort Stickeen birthed
[3:12] at Victoria Dock in Mumbai on April 12th, 1944, unloading
[3:16] began that evening with the seemingly innocuous cargo, fish
[3:19] meal and oil drums. Explosives was supposed to be
[3:22] next, but the critical delay prevented this that were any
[3:26] lighters. This forced the explosive to
[3:29] remain aboard while the other cargo was gradually removed.
[3:32] By April 14th, 2 days later at midday, approximately 1000 tons
[3:37] of ammunition still remained on the ship, a massive quantity of
[3:41] highly reactive explosive material sitting in the Bombay
[3:46] heat under the Indian sun. For bounding the problem, the
[3:49] Ford Stickeens engine was undergoing maintenance while
[3:52] birth, making it impossible to move the ship to open water.
[3:55] Furthermore, wartime secrecy prevented the ship from even
[3:58] flying the customary red flag that would have warned
[4:01] dockworkers of dangerous cargo. Most dockworkers and even many
[4:05] port officials remained unaware of what exactly sat in the ships
[4:09] hold. At approximately 12:30 PM on
[4:12] April 14th, fire broke out on the number 2 hold of the ship.
[4:15] It's exact cause remains unclear, though the accepted
[4:18] theory involves spontaneous combustion or an uncontrolled
[4:22] spark. Smoke was visible around 15
[4:24] minutes later, by 12:45 PM, but the dock was at a standstill
[4:28] during lunch hour. It wasn't until 1:45 PM that a
[4:32] stevedore named Mohamed Taqi noticed the smoke and raised an
[4:37] alarm. What followed was a desperate,
[4:40] ultimately futile battle against the inevitable.
[4:43] Firefighting began immediately, with multiple pumps and hoses
[4:47] deployed into the hole, eventually pumping over 900 tons
[4:51] of water into the ship. However, the water itself became
[4:54] part of the problem. The cotton bales floated on the
[4:57] water surface, being pushed upwards toward the explosive
[5:00] stored in the between decks above.
[5:02] The water, far from suppressing the fire, was actually fanning
[5:05] it by displacing burning cotton upwards.
[5:08] By 3:00 PM, senior naval and military officers arrived to
[5:12] assess the situation. They included Major or Best of
[5:15] the Ordnance Service of the Indian Army, who recommended
[5:18] immediately scuttling the ship the accident protocol.
[5:21] When all of the firefighting efforts failed, however,
[5:24] scuttling represented its own problem.
[5:27] The tidy basin was only 26 feet deep, barely enough to cover the
[5:31] Fort Stikins double bottom. Moving the ship to deeper water
[5:34] would have taken time that they no longer had.
[5:36] By 3:45 PM, Captain Naismith gave the order to abandon ship.
[5:41] At four O 6, or roughly around 4 O 7:00 PM, the inevitable
[5:45] occurred. The explosion was described in
[5:47] Contameranius accounts with horror.
[5:50] One source records a tremendous blast like the broadside of 100
[5:55] fleets engulfed Bombay, a blast that shattered every building
[5:59] within 1/4 mile radius and annihilated every living thing
[6:03] in the immediate area. The Fort Stickeen itself was
[6:06] blown into two massive pieces. Her boy that still intact landed
[6:10] half a mile away. Debris was heard 1000 to 3000
[6:15] feet in the air. A 4000 ton ship birth beside the
[6:19] Ford Stickin, which was called the Jalapatma, was lifted clean
[6:23] out of the water and deposited on the Quay wall 50 feet of
[6:27] vertical displacement. The explosions force was
[6:30] sufficient to create a massive, tidy wave that swept across the
[6:33] docks, ripping additional ships from the moorings.
[6:37] Most remarkably, the blast had registered on seismographs at
[6:41] the Colaba Observatory in Bombay and on instruments and weather
[6:44] stations as far away as Shimla, 1700 kilometers away.
[6:49] The recorded magnitude was approximately 3.4 on the Richter
[6:53] scale. In terms of explosive power, the
[6:56] total explosive cargo released roughly 1400 plus tons of TNT
[7:01] equivalent, a figure that places this among the most powerful non
[7:05] nuclear explosions ever recorded. 30 minutes later, at
[7:09] 4:40 PMA, second explosion occurred with even greater
[7:13] violence as the remaining explosives in the aft section of
[7:16] the shattered ship ignited. The second blast sent debris up
[7:20] 3000 feet in the air and caused still more devastation to the
[7:23] surrounding docks and nearby neighborhoods.
[7:25] When dawn broke on April 15, 1944, just hours after the
[7:30] catastrophic explosions, Bombay's military and civilian
[7:33] authorities faced a nightmare scenario that demanded
[7:35] unprecedented action. The fire that had consumed the
[7:38] docks was number longer confined to the port area.
[7:40] It had spread across hundreds of buildings and was advancing
[7:43] northward in a terrifying wall of flame fanned by an
[7:47] unseasonable monsoon breeze that seemed determined to carry
[7:50] destruction to the heart of the city itself.
[7:52] Visible from 75 kilometers away, towering pillars of flame and
[7:56] smoke rose from burning oil storage tanks and ignited
[7:58] ammunition caches. Water based firefighting,
[8:01] despite the efforts of Fire Brigades and rescue teams, was
[8:04] proving utterly inadequate to stop the inferno's relentless
[8:07] advance. The situation was dire.
[8:10] With traditional firefighting measures failing and the fire
[8:12] threatening to consume entire residential districts, military
[8:16] authorities made a drastic decision.
[8:18] They would deliberately demolish a quarter mile, approximately
[8:21] 400 meters strip of buildings lying directly in the fire spot.
[8:26] The goal was create was to create a fire break wide enough
[8:29] that the flames could not jump across the gap to stop what the
[8:33] explosives had started executing.
[8:35] The strategy required displacing thousands of residents with
[8:37] minimal warning. Military cordons moved into the
[8:40] designated demolition zone with explicit orders to priority
[8:43] inhabitants, using force if necessary.
[8:47] The scene that unfolded was chaotic and heartbreaking.
[8:50] Residents shocked and traumatized by the explosions in
[8:53] the fires that they had already witnessed, emerged from their
[8:55] homes and shops, quote stupefied by shock streaming through the
[8:59] streets with their meager possessions on their backs.
[9:02] Once the civilians had been evacuated, the actual demolition
[9:05] began. Military sappers and demolition
[9:07] experts moved into the evacuated zone with explosives and heavy
[9:10] equipment. Throughout the night of the
[9:12] April 15th, the area I called with continuous orchestrated
[9:16] destruction. Contemporary accounts describe
[9:18] the eerie soundtrack of the operation.
[9:20] Quote. Hour after hour, explosions and
[9:23] the crashing sound of buildings shattered the night.
[9:26] By the following night, April 16th, the demolition was
[9:29] complete. The one quarter mile strip that
[9:32] had been reduced to rubble created a clear fire break
[9:35] against which the advancing flames finally began to lose
[9:38] momentum. The strategy walked.
[9:41] The fire, which had threatened to consume vast sections of
[9:43] Bombay's residential and commercial districts, was
[9:46] gradually contained. After burning for three days and
[9:49] three nights under a ball of black, thick smoke, the Reagan
[9:53] conflagration gradually resumed itself amidst the burning
[9:56] rubble, and by May 1st, 1944, more than two weeks after the
[10:01] initial explosion, last embers were finally extinguished.
[10:05] The destruction was so complete that recovery and reconstruction
[10:09] would consume months of intensive labor.
[10:11] In total, 6000 Indian and 2000 British servicemen worked night
[10:16] and day for six months, moving approximately 1,000,000 tons of
[10:21] debris. The death toll was staggering,
[10:23] official figures cited with 740 killed, with another 1800 to
[10:28] 3000 injured. However, this official count
[10:31] likely undercounts the two true toll.
[10:34] The British Indian Colonial Administration's formal tally
[10:37] included 476 military personnel, with another 264 from dock
[10:42] services and Fire Brigades. The unofficial death toll,
[10:45] accounting for casualties among residents of nearby slums, where
[10:48] detailed records were never maintained, likely reached 1300
[10:52] or higher. The fire brigade bore an
[10:54] especially tragic burden. Out of 156 firefighters present
[10:59] at the docks that day, 66 to 71 were killed and another eighty
[11:04] were wounded. These figures were so
[11:06] significant that April 14th was designated as National Fire
[11:09] Service Day in India, observed annually across the country.
[11:13] Fire Safety Week is observed between April 14th and 21st and
[11:17] the Bombay Fire Brigade maintains a memorial at its
[11:20] headquarters in Baikala honoring the 66 fallen firefighters.
[11:24] The broader social impact was devastating.
[11:26] Approximately 80,000 people were ended homeless, 6000 firms were
[11:31] affected, several thousand workers losing their livelihood.
[11:34] Property damage was assessed at approximately 100 crore pounds
[11:39] in 1944 currency values, or over 150 million in contemporary
[11:43] American dollars, or 1300 plus crore rupees in today's money.
[11:48] As debris rained down across Bombay, an extraordinary for
[11:52] many phenomenon occurred. The gold bars scattered across
[11:55] the docks by the blast fell in such quantities that
[11:59] contemporary accounts speak of Fort Gold literally falling from
[12:03] the sky. The cargo manifest listed 155
[12:06] gold ingots, what approximately 890,000 to 1,000,000 lbs.
[12:11] The explosions force scattered them across an enormous radius.
[12:15] £128.00 gold bar that's around 12.7 KG was found a full mile
[12:21] away from the explosions epicenter.
[12:23] The recovery of this gold would become an ongoing affair
[12:26] spanning decades. Many bars were retrieved in the
[12:29] immediate aftermath and returned to authorities.
[12:32] However, the gold's dispersal was so thorough, the additional
[12:35] bars continue to be discovered during routine maintenance of
[12:38] the docks for years afterwards. As I mentioned at the beginning
[12:41] of this episode, in a remarkable instance, as recently as
[12:45] February 20, 1167 years after the explosion, workers carrying
[12:49] out construction on a new dock unearthed 2 intact gold bars,
[12:53] which were confirmed through preliminary expand examination
[12:56] to be from the Fort Stickeen's original cargo.
[12:59] The recording of this explosion on seismographs 1700 kilometers
[13:03] away was not merely a curious fact, it contributed to the
[13:06] scientific understanding of seismology itself.
[13:09] The explosion provided researchers with a known energy
[13:12] event that could be precisely timed and measured.
[13:15] The ability to correlate a specific explosion with seismic
[13:19] recordings helped advance seismological methodology,
[13:23] particularly in distinguishing between natural earthquakes and
[13:27] man made explosions, a distinction that would become
[13:29] increasingly important during the subsequent military
[13:32] developments and nuclear testing.
[13:34] The disaster drove significant changes in global maritime law
[13:38] and port operations. These regulatory reforms
[13:40] contributed to the development of what eventually became the
[13:44] International Maritime Dangerous Goods Score, which today's
[13:47] specifies precise rules for cargo segregation, labeling,
[13:52] stowing categories, and emergency procedures.
[13:55] The IMDb code now mandates that explosives cannot be mixed with
[13:59] combustible materials, that specific warning flags must be
[14:02] displayed, that specialized handling procedures be followed
[14:05] and detailed, manifest to be available to all parties
[14:08] managing the cargo. Despite its magnitude and
[14:10] consequences, the Bombay explosion remains largely
[14:13] unknown outside India and maritime historic history
[14:16] circles. This obscurity stems partially
[14:19] from wartime censorship that initially surrounded the event
[14:22] and from the colonial era tendency to de emphasize as
[14:25] disasters in British India. Within metapro metropolitan
[14:28] historical consciousness, the explosion predated major nuclear
[14:32] events that captured the 20th century imagination.
[14:35] It also occurred in India during the final phase of colonialism,
[14:38] when such events received less comprehensive international
[14:41] documentation than they would have in Western nations.
[14:44] However, the disasters significance cannot be
[14:47] overstated. It remains one of the deadliest
[14:49] port explosions in history. It advanced scientific
[14:52] understanding of explosion seismology.
[14:54] It catalyzed International Maritime safety regulations that
[14:57] have prevented countless subsequent disasters, and it
[15:00] stands as a sober reminder of the consequences of regulatory
[15:03] negligence, wartime shortcuts, and human error.
[15:06] The fact that gold bars from the Forts Tahin continued to be
[15:10] discovered in Bombay Harbor into the 21st century serves as a
[15:14] tangible, persistent reminder that some disasters leave traces
[15:18] that echo across generations. That's all for this many
[15:22] episode. We'll be back next week with our
[15:25] regular quizzing episodes. If you like this episode or if
[15:29] you want more such many episodes, please reach out to us
[15:31] on our socials. You can come and me messages on
[15:34] Instagram or on our e-mail. Are you quizzing me?
[15:36] Or even just post on our subreddit.
[15:38] R slash are you quizzing me? See you guys next week.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.