Monument to the massacred crew of the Baron Innerdale

Monument of the Baron Innerdale massacre, 1904. There are a few conflicting stories about what happened here. Richardson's seems to be the best documented. The Baron Innerdale was a 3340 tons steamship loaded with grain and timber from Karachi on way to Liverpool. She ran aground at Hallaniyah, the largest island of the Kuria Muria islands, in bad weather in August 1904. After three days the captain ordered abandonment of the ship in two lifeboats. Three days later the ship was found by the SS Prome that took off the eight remaining crew. The Baron Innerdale was refloated and made it to Bombay. The missing crew was searched for by the steamer Dalhousi from Aden. The smaller lifeboat, with six crew was never seen again. The bigger one, with 17 crew and the captain apparently made it to Masirah. What happened remains unclear, but most likely an incident resulted in a fight between crew and locals, which resulted in the massacre of all of the crew, except a boy passenger. Reports of the slaughter of the crew resulted in Sultan Faisal to visit the island and investigate the incident. The search uncovered evidence and a number islanders were subsequently tried and convicted in Muscat. They were shot at the site of the massacre and the sheikh was banished from the island.

The monument was built in 1943 close to where the incident took place. The inscription incorrectly lists the Baron Inverdale rather than Innderdale. A popular story claims that the sultan punished the whole population by razing the village of Hilf and forbidding them to build permanent housing for 100 years; myth rather than reality as local people were unaware of the ban and permanent buildings were definitely constructed.