The British oil tanker sunk in Indonesia

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

In 1958, the British oil tanker, SS San Flaviano, was sunk in the harbour of Balikpapan, Indonesia, while a rebellion was underway against President Ahmed Sukarno.

It’s reported the bomb was dropped by a CIA pilot authorised to aid the rebels, but confirming their involvement has required some investigating.

Megan Jones has been looking into it and speaking to Joseph McCorry who was forced to evacuate the ship after seeing the bomb drop.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Joseph McCorry at training school. Credit: Joseph McCorry)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron.
0:10.5	Evil genius.
0:11.6	He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it.
0:15.5	That's like hiding at your own funeral.
0:17.1	Yeah, a big, great gig.
0:18.6	I'm Russell Kane.
0:19.6	Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius.
0:24.1	Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius.
0:26.4	It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:29.4	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:34.9	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:42.3	Thank you. and it's out of ice cream. Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. Hello, this is the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Megan Jones.
0:48.5	We're the podcast that takes you back to a key moment in history through the eyes of the people that were there.
0:55.3	Our episodes are just nine minutes long, and they come out every weekday. So if you want to make sure that you
1:00.5	never miss an episode, you can hit the subscribe button wherever you get your BBC podcasts and you can
1:06.2	also turn on your push notifications. So that will tell you every time there's a new one to listen to.
1:11.7	But for now, let's get to the program.
1:14.0	I've been digging through declassified files from almost 70 years ago
1:18.4	to uncover the truth behind a British oil tanker destroyed by a CIA pilot
1:24.3	in the harbour of an Indonesian city.
1:36.1	Music CIA pilot in the harbour of an Indonesian city. Hello.
	...

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