The Tampomas II began life in 1971 as the Central No. 6, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Shimonoseki, Japan. By the time the Indonesian state shipping company Pelni acquired her, the vessel was already ten years old, and Japan itself had deemed her no longer seaworthy. The purchase price raised eyebrows: US$8.3 million through the state development agency PT PANN, when private companies had been offered the same ship for just US$3.6 million. The gap was never satisfactorily explained. Once in service, the 6,153-ton ferry was assigned to Indonesia's busiest routes -- Jakarta to Padang and Jakarta to Ujung Pandang -- with only four-hour turnarounds between voyages. Maintenance was perfunctory at best. The ship lacked a smoke detection system entirely.

The signs were visible to anyone who cared to look. During the Tampomas II's maiden voyage in June 1980 -- a showcase cruise carrying journalists and members of parliament -- the engine broke down six times. The ship circled helplessly in the same radius when its automatic regulator buttons malfunctioned. A planned entertainment show was cancelled due to a prolonged electrical failure. Member of Parliament Ahmad Soebagyo from the PDI party raised concerns publicly about the irregularities. His warnings joined those of Japanese inspectors and maritime professionals who had already flagged the vessel's condition. Seven months later, the Tampomas II sailed from Tanjung Priok harbor in Jakarta on the morning of 24 January 1981. One of her engines was already broken before departure. She carried 1,055 registered passengers, 82 crew, 200 motor vehicles, and an unknown number of stowaways who had bought unauthorized tickets. The total aboard was likely around 1,442 souls.

The disaster began at roughly 8:00 PM on 25 January, near the Masalembu Islands in the Java Sea, in stormy weather. Fuel leaks in the engine room were ignited by cigarette butts falling through ventilation shafts. Crew members tried portable fire extinguishers and failed. The fire spread through open deck doors into the engine compartment, knocking out the ship's power for two hours. The emergency generator failed. When flames reached the fuel tanks of the vehicles parked on the car deck -- hundreds of motorcycles, Vespa scooters, cars, even a steam roller -- the fire became unstoppable, consuming every deck in succession. Thirty minutes after the fire started, passengers were told to go to the upper deck and board lifeboats. But there was only one door leading up, and the evacuation crawled. Once passengers reached the upper decks, no crew members or officers directed them. Some crew lowered the six lifeboats -- each holding only fifty people -- for themselves. Desperate passengers leaped into the sea.

The KM Sangihe, heading from Pare-pare to Surabaya for engine repairs of its own, was the first vessel to respond. Its first deck officer, J. Bilalu, spotted a column of smoke to the west and initially mistook it for Pertamina's offshore oil rig. The Sangihe's wireless operator, Abu Akbar, sent an SOS at 8:15 AM. The ship's captain, Agus K. Sumirat, had been Rivai's classmate at the Maritime Academy, class of 1959. Other vessels joined through the day and night: the KM Ilmamui, the tanker Istana VI, the Adhiguna Karunia, and the KM Sengata. But the Java Sea turned hostile -- torrential rain battered the rescue effort on the morning of 26 January. By the following morning, an explosion in the engine room breached the hull. Seawater flooded the generator and propeller rooms, and the Tampomas II developed a 45-degree list. At 12:45 PM on 27 January, she went down, taking 288 people still trapped in the lower decks with her.

Official reports stated 439 dead -- 143 bodies recovered and 294 missing -- with 757 rescued. But the true toll was almost certainly higher, perhaps 666 or more, inflated by the uncounted stowaways and holders of unauthorized tickets. The investigation, led by Attorney Bob Rush Efendi Nasution, blamed the crew and went no further. The overpriced purchase, the ignored warnings, the absent safety equipment, the broken engines that should have grounded the ship -- none of it was meaningfully addressed. Many in parliament demanded a deeper inquiry. It never came. The Governor of South Sulawesi, Andi Oddang, declared three days of mourning. Indonesian musicians Iwan Fals and Ebiet G. Ade wrote songs about the disaster, embedding it in the national memory through art where official accountability had failed. The Tampomas II rests on the floor of the Java Sea, near the Masalembu Islands, in waters that Indonesians sometimes call the Masalembo Triangle -- a place where too many ships have met their end.