Extract from the Royal Indian Nanvy 1939-1945
Loss of the Prabhavati

On the very day when Japan declared war on the Allies an unforeseen incident occurred, which resulted in the loss of H.M.I.S. Prabhavati.1 The cruiser H.M.S. Glasgow, reached Colombo on 6 December 1941 from the Mediterranean to join the East Indies Fleet under Admiral Leatnam when Japan was about to enter the war. As soon as she had fuelled, watered and victualled, she was detailed to search the entire anchorages of the Laccadive group for suspicious ships and submarines as it was expected that on entering the war, Japan would try to base her supply ships and oilers in the little known atolls of the Laccadive groups to feed her prowling submarines. She embarked a couple of interpreters and left Colombo at 1700. Her orders were to land those interpreters on the various islands and question the local residents regarding the passage of any suspicious ships. On 7 December, she flew off her Walrus five times for searches but nothing was sighted. At about 1530 she arrived at the first of the islands, Kalpini. The inhabitants had nothing to report and she sailed at 1900 for the next island where she expected to stay till about 0800 on 8 December.

On 7 December 1941, it was announced that Japan had declared war and an Admiralty message said that submarines were to be expected in the vicinity. It further stated that four German merchant ships in Marmagoa harbour had refuelled and might make an attempt to get away. The entrance to Goa was guarded by the ships of the Indian Navy. The Glasgow was immediately ordered by the Commander-in-Chief East Indies to proceed towards Marmagoa and patrol. Earlier, she had intercepted a message from the Dipavati, off Goa, to the effect that she had sighted a submarine which had dived and that she had carried out a depth-charge attack.

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Doing about 22 knots the Glasgow headed straight for Marmagoa. Her shipping plot was clear except for the Dipavati. She was working a two-watch system with half the armament constantly manned. A* about 1106 on the 7th, her Starboard look-out sighted a dark object bearing about 080° approximately 3 miles. It was presumed that it was the submarine depthcharged by the Dipavati earlier in the day which had probably surfaced to carry out repairs. The silhouette was very low in the water and the object looked very much like a surfaced submarine. There was also a light visible on deck. The Glasgow immediately altered course to open out a little and went to General Quarters. She then closed and challenged the ship, but there was no reply. At 1158 the Glasgow switched on her searchlights and immediately opened fire with a broadside of twelve-6".

The Glasgow ceased firing as she saw smoke belching out of the bridge and the ship began going down by the bows. Searchlights which had been dowsed after the first salvo were switched on again and she closed to pick up survivors. Midshipman K. L. Kulkarni, R.I.N., was the Officer of the Quarter "A" Turret and was rather pleased with the clean shoot. When the searchlights were put on, he saw through the "A" Turret periscope the ship heeling over and slowly sinking and a number of raft-like craft astern of her. Men were in water and waving. He was then ordered to go in a whaler to pick up survivors.

When he approached the men in the water, he was staggered to hear, instead of Japanese or German words, oaths in Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil. It was soon clear that the Glasgow had sunk one of the R.T.N, ships. It was H.M.I.S. Prabhavati towing some barges to Karachi from Cochin. The tow of the barges had parted and the ship had stopped and was getting out fresh hawsers for towing. With a low hull and a number of barges astern, she had a submarinelike silhouette. She was not on the Glasgow's shipping plot at all and they had information that apart from the Dipavati, there were no other ships in the vicinity.

The Prabhavati soon turned on her side and sank. All the survivors were put on the barges first. There were three barges and one of them also soon sank, having been hit. Of a total complement of 5 officers and 58 ratings, 3 officers and 25 ratings were saved, including the Captain. There were 12 seriously wounded and they were taken in the whaler. Midshipman Kulkarni was ordered to be in Sickbay with the Surgeon Commander to act as interpreter. Every single survivor was wounded in the lower half of his body.

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Dead bodies were afloat all over the area. By 0300 all survivors had been picked up and the Glasgow proceeded to her patrol area. Early in the morning she steamed south again and sank the remaining Lighters and then steamed for Bombay. The Glasgow arrived, in Bombay on the 8th at 2130 and landed the survivors. It was one of the most tragic actions of the war.