Media Release

Udupi, Nov 25: It was November 26 1943, the time of 2nd World War. HMT Rohna (His Majesty’s Troopship Rohna), a huge ship  belonging to the British India Steam Navigation Company, loaded with men and ammunition started out as a part of convoy KMF 26 from Port Oran of Algeria towards Port Karachi in the far east (then a part of India) via Suez Canal.

Though the vessel was meant for transportation of cargo it was modified to carry soldiers and ammunition by the order of the British Government. On that fateful day the ship was bombarded by the German War Planes.

There were 2388 people on board including 195 members of crew. Among them 1018 soldiers and 120 crew members drowned in the sea. The tragedy has been recorded in history as the largest loss of U.S. troops at sea in a single incident.

Thomas Alva, a native of Pangala, in Udupi Taluk who had just turned 20 (Date of birth: 20th June 1923), was a crew member in that ill-fated ship. He had a miraculous survival, which was a literal rebirth to him. Though he fell into the sea, for his good luck he got hold of a floating plank of the broken ship and started floating. After a long time, he caught a rope thrown by some other ship in the convoy, they pulled him over board and he was rescued.

Today on the 70th Anniversary of the incident Thomas Alva is in his 91st year residing at Mariapura, Pangala, in Udupi District.