RPS Rajah Soliman [D-66] - Conflicting Dates On Sinking
Posted by Jhun Nonato on Monday, March 15, 2010
Did the RPS Rajah Soliman sink in 1962 or in 1964? We owe it to history to clarify this question once and for all.
I was with my brother Ket and some of his friends about a week ago, and they told me that they have been reading my memoirs. On our way home, my brother pointed out that there was a mistake in the date of the sinking. Typhoon Dading [international codename: Winnie], which sunk the ship, hit the country in 1964, he averred. When I wrote the item on RPS Rajah Soliman, I admit that I did not bother to check on the date of the typhoon's occurrence. The website I checked on the ship's history indicated that the end of the ship happened in June of 1962.
After our talk, I researched again, this time I included typhoon Dading. I came across an article in the Navy Times issue of April 7, 1965, regarding the righting and salvaging operation done by the US Navy, which I did not see during my first research. This article and the date of Dading's passage through our country, confirm that the actual sinking of the Rajah Soliman took place on June 29, 1964.