Seventy-four people. Six urns. Both ships had pilots who knew the waterway

Seventy-four people. Six urns. Both ships had pilots who knew the waterway

A pre-dawn collision in dense fog left seventy-four people dead and only six urns lowered into communal graves - yet both ships carried Argentine pilots who knew the Punta Indio Channel intimately. How did a routine port-to-port passing fail in a corridor designed for exactly that maneuver, and why did three investigations produce no criminal convictions?

In this episode, we recount the facts of the Royston Grange and Tien Chee collision, describe the ships, their crews and cargo, and follow the sequence that turned refrigerated holds into a furnace - asking what explanations were ever fully satisfactory.

Person: Argentine maritime pilot aboard Royston Grange Person: Argentine maritime pilot aboard Tien Chee Date: 11 May 1972 (collision at 05:40) Location: Punta Indio Channel, Río de la Plata Event: Collision ruptured Tien Chee tank 7 and Royston Grange refrigeration room

- Royston Grange measured 489 feet in length and 65.5 feet in beam, launched 23 June 1959. - Tien Chee was carrying approximately 20,000 tons of crude oil when tank number seven ruptured. - Royston Grange carried 12 passengers (including six women and one five-year-old) and 61 crew. - The refrigeration failure released freon lines and hundreds of tons of chilled Argentine beef and butter into the fire. - Six urns were interred in two communal graves at the British Cemetery in Montevideo on 20 May 1972.

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