The SS Tilawa, carrying silver bars valued at $43 million, has been ruled to be owned by South Africa more than 80 years after it sank in the Indian Ocean.
On May 8, the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) granted ownership of the wreck of the ship nicknamed the “Indian Titanic” from World War II and its estimated $43 million treasure to the Republic of South Africa, according to Popular Science. This ruling ends a protracted legal battle between South Africa and Argentum Exploration Ltd., a marine salvage company, over the wreck that has attracted treasure hunters for years.
The SS Tilawa before sinking. (Photo: Baird Maritime).
On November 23, 1942, a day filled with significant events of World War II, including Operation Uranus, the tragedy of the SS Tilawa unfolded as the ship sank to the ocean floor. The SS Tilawa was not a military vessel but a passenger and cargo ship, carrying 222 crew members, 732 passengers, 4 gunners, and 6,000 tons of cargo, including many silver bars.
Departing from Bombay (now Mumbai), the SS Tilawa was on its way to Durban, South Africa, carrying silver intended for minting coins, but it never reached its destination. As it approached the Seychelles archipelago, the Tilawa was hit by two torpedoes, one hour apart, fired from the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-29. The ship sank after being struck by the second torpedo, taking 280 people down with it. The remaining survivors drifted for two days before the HMS Birmingham arrived and rescued 674 people.
The SS Tilawa earned the nickname “Indian Titanic” due to its resemblance to the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, which resulted in approximately 1,500 fatalities. The SS Tilawa is believed to be the “only passenger and cargo ship attacked in the Indian Ocean during World War II.”
In 2017, 75 years after the sinking of the SS Tilawa, the precious silver bars aboard were finally recovered. British racer Ross Hyett founded Argentum Exploration Ltd. in 2012 with the goal of locating wartime shipwrecks carrying treasure. In July of that year, Hyett’s company partnered with Advanced Maritime Services (AMS) to locate the wreck of the SS Tilawa. AMS took about two years to accurately pinpoint the wreck site of the SS Tilawa. Subsequently, AMS employed sophisticated high-tech methods to carry out the salvage operation.
The Norwegian multipurpose vessel Seabed Worker was utilized to recover the silver bars from the wreck of the SS Tilawa beneath the Indian Ocean. Experts spent six months pulling 2,364 silver bars from a depth of approximately 3,500 meters, according to Baird Maritime. Recovering silver from the deep seabed was relatively straightforward. However, transporting the treasure was a much more challenging task, especially as the salvage team had to navigate ownership disputes. Since the silver was secured by the British government, the Seabed Worker and its accompanying vessel, Pacific Askari, had to make the journey back to the UK.
After the vessels arrived in Southampton, Argentum claimed ownership of the wreck. However, the Republic of South Africa also asserted its claim. The High Court and Court of Appeal initially recognized Argentum’s ownership, but the UKSC overturned those previous rulings and ruled in favor of South Africa because the silver carried by the SS Tilawa served the purpose of minting for the country.
