Flashback in maritime history –

Car ferry Tampo Mas II, fire and

sinking 27 Jan 1981– 580
fatalities
Maritime Cyprus admin / 5 hours ago

(http://www.MaritimeCyprus.com) Fire broke out on the Indonesian car ferry TampoMas II off
Kalimantan. The official death toll was 431, but with many passengers unregistered or traveling without
tickets, the final figure was never known.
The ship carried dozens of motor vehicles, including a SAKAI steam roller, Vespa scooters, etc., which were
parked in the car deck. The manifest mentioned 200 motor cars, 1055 registered passengers and 82 crew
members on board. The estimated total passengers, including stowaways, was 1442.

Around 20:00 on January 25, in stormy weather, some parts of the engine experienced fuel leaks, and
cigarette butts coming down from the vents ignited the leaking fuel. The crews saw the fire and tried to snuff
it out using portable fire extinguishers, but failed. The fire grew larger in the engine compartment because of
the open deck doors. It caused a power cutoff for two hours, and the emergency generator failed and any
effort to extinguish the fire was halted because it was deemed impossible. The fuel that was still in every
vehicle caused the fire to spread and burned up all the decks quickly. Thirty minutes after the fire started, the
passengers were ordered to go to the upper deck and board the lifeboats. However, the evacuation process
went slowly because there was only one door to the upper deck. Once they get to the upper decks, none of the
crew nor the ship’s officers directed them to the lifeboats. Some of the crew members even selfishly lowered
the lifeboats for themselves. There were only six lifeboats, each with a capacity of only 50 people. Some
passengers desperately dived into the sea, and some frantically waited for rescue.

The first ship to conduct a rescue mission was the KM Sangihe, with Captain Agus K. Sumirat as the skipper.
Sumirat was Abdul Rivai’s classmate in the class of 1959 when they were studying at Academy Ilmu
Pelayaran (Maritime Academy). Sangihe was travelling from Pare-pare to Surabaya for engine repair.
Sangihe’s first deck officer, J. Bilalu, wasthe first to see a puff of smoke to the west and thought the smoke was
coming from Pertamina‘s offshore oil rig. Sangihe’s wireless operator, Abu Akbar, sent an SOS message at
08:15. KM Ilmamui joined the rescue effort at 21:00, followed four hours later by the tanker Palace VI and
other ships, including Adhiguna Karunia and PT. Porodisa Line’s KM Sengata.
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In the morning of January 26, the Java Sea was hit by torrential rain. The fire began to spread to the engine
room, where there was unisolated fuel. As a result, in the morning of January 27, there was an explosion in
the engine room which created an entrance for the sea water to fill the compartments. The generator and the
propeller room filled with seawater, which resulted in the ship having a 45° list.

Finally, at 12:45 on January 27 (about 30 hours after the first spark), the ship sank to the bottom of the Java
Sea, along with 288 people in the lower decks.

Captain Abdul Rival was the last to leave the ship, he sent a message to the skipper of Sangihe, “Please send
me water and food, because I am going to stay on the ship until the last minute”. The message was conveyed
through Bakaila, a crew member who successfully crossed over to Sangihe. But the request was not fulfilled
by Sumirat.

Rescuers estimated that 431 people were killed (143 bodies were found and 288 people were lost with the
ship), while 753 people were rescued. Other sources put the number of victims as much larger, with up to 666
people killed. Of note, Palace VI managed to save 144 Tampomas passengers and discovered four bodies,
while Sengata saved 169 people and discovered two bodies, while another ship, KM Sonne discovered 29 dead
bodies, including captain Abdul Rival.

The wireless operator, Odang Kusdinar, survived, he was found with 62 passengers in a lifeboat near Duang
Duang Island, 240 km east of where Tampomas sank, on Friday, January 30, 1981 at 05:00.

Petrus JM
Ex Inspector PT BKI
Manager HSE
HSE Department
Jakarta 5 January 2020