The recollection of the anniversary of the shelling of Madras by the S.M.S. Emden on September 22, 1914 (MM, October 1st) had Reader D.H. Rao send us the reproduction below recalling another Emden-associated anniversary dating to September 18, 1914. He writes:

The Emden shelled Madras four days after it sent the s.s. Aronda in shallow waters just after it left Rangoon for Calcutta. The Aronda, named after a village near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, was a 4000-ton BISN steamer built in 1912 by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Govan. The ship, manned by 16 officers and 111 ratings, could take 50 1st class passengers, 47 2nd class passengers and 1250 deck passengers. It regularly plied the Calcutta-Rangoon route.

Before torpedoing the ship, Captain Muller ordered all passengers to disembark into the lifeboats. As the ship was sunk in shallow waters, all goods, mail bags and personal belongings aboard it could be salvaged. The vessel too was later refloated, repaired and pressed into war service ferrying troops from India to West Asia, where it came under fire again in 1918, but escaped undamaged.

After the War, the Aronda returned to its Calcutta-Rangoon route and on March 3, 1929, Gandhiji travelled in it to Rangoon where he addressed several meetings and was given over Rs.1,50,000 by the public. The ship was scrapped in Bombay in 1932.

The cover with the special cancellation philatelist Rao got on September 18, 2009 shows Capt. Muller, the Emden, the Aronda and the route the Emden followed when it came from China Station and raided in the Indian Ocean.