Making the Best of a Bad Situation

1944 Bombay Explosion Witnessed by Patricia Funk

 

 

On April 14, 1944, sixty-nine years ago today, the cargo ship Fort Stikine exploded while berthed at a dock in Bombay, India.  1300 people perished in the massive explosion.  3000 more were injured.  Since World War II was raging at the time, the incident was initially suspected to be an act of Japanese sabotage.  Though it was later deemed an accident, many were unconvinced.  One who always suspected the Japanese were responsible was 19-year-old Patricia Funk who was near the harbor when the ship exploded.  Two things you might find interesting about Ms. Funk:

1.      She was in Bombay as a refugee after being evacuated from Singapore where she had been attending school.  The Japanese had attacked Singapore one day after their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

2.     In 1972, not entirely to her liking, she would become my mother-in-law.

Though she passed away on September 11, 2007, here is her account of that that day in Bombay:

April 13, 1944 – I met a Eurasian military nurse known as “The Angel of Mercy” while attending a party.  She was stationed at an Army-Navy hospital on the Burma Road.  Her real name was Molly Brown.  The parties here are a respite from the misery the war is causing.  Molly told me about the death and destruction of military and civilians on the Burma Road.  Sickness, starvation, exhaustion, malaria, dysentery and other diseases took their toll.  Many died on the road and were just pushed to the side by the military.  There was no time for burial because the Japanese were not far behind.

Molly told me she could still hear those poor people being shot at and the sputtering of machine guns in her dreams.  I told her similar stories about my days in Singapore and the bombing and shooting by the Japanese.  But we were away from the front.  Tonight we were dining and dancing.  In the morning I had planned a tour of Bombay on a double-decker bus.

April 14, 1944 – After breakfast we got on the bus and off we went on a tour of Bombay.  We had no sooner got near the beaches and harbor when a huge explosion shook the bus and everyone on it.  The bus came to a screeching halt and the driver told everyone to exit quickly.  Vehicles of all types were stopped everywhere and, in the chaos, people were in shock and trying to regain their senses. 

Speculation ran rampant about the incident, from Japanese sabotage to a direct Japanese bombing attack.  In a few minutes, however, a police patrol arrived and told us that a huge tanker ship in the harbor had blown up.  We were allowed back on the bus and, from the top deck, we could see that there was total panic in the harbor.  Military vehicles and personnel were all over the harbor helping the injured sailors and civilians.

 Later all everyone talked about was what had happened at the harbor.  Molly and I got adventurous and decided it must be safe enough to view the wreck.  At the beach we met several friends who were pointing at some dogs in the distance.  The dogs were fighting over victim’s body parts floating in on the tide.  We still believed that the Japanese had something to do with the carnage and I never went back to that harbor again. 

Even in the worst of times, life goes on.  While in Bombay, Patricia Funk eventually met and fell in love with Highlandville, Mo. resident Howard Flood who was stationed in Bombay with the U.S. Army Air Corps.  They met at an ice cream parlor.  So it was that while enjoying one love of his life, ice cream, Howard was introduced to ANOTHER love his life, Patricia Funk.  They were married for 57 years before Howard passed away in 2003.  I have now been (mostly) happily married to their daughter for 40+ years.   But, when looking back over the twists and turns of the path my life has taken, I sometimes wonder how the course of my life would have been altered had Japanese bombs NOT forced a Malaysian schoolgirl to flee for her life in 1941.

(Correction:  After reading this blog about her mom, my wife noticed a mistake.  Apparently I have been COMPLETELY, not "mostly" happily married for 40+ years.)