From an account by Tommy Hazell Saltford, Bristol.
In 1943 a group of airmen built the monument on the North-East tip of Masirah near the airfield. It commemorates the massacre of the captain and 21 crew of S.S. Innerdale, a vessel of 3,340 tons, that had run aground on the Kuria Murile islands on 2nd August, 1904. The party left their lifeboat seeking help, and probably thought they had landed on the mainland. A tragic misunderstanding with the natives resulted in the deaths of captain and crew. The ship’s boy was the only survivor. The ringleaders were later executed by the Sultan of Muscat’s forces. The inscription on the monument was misspelt “Inverdale”, and seems to add a unique touch to an unusual piece of history.
A more official account:
The only survivor was a cabin boy who was taken aboard the Dalhousie. Whether the captain had deliberately decided to land, or had simply been driven ashore by the monsoon will never be known, but it appears that on landing, the crew were met by the local sheikh. The Arabs were friendly at first, but at some stage in the proceedings one of the crew fired a pistol. Whether the crew feared for their safety in some way or there was simply an accident cannot be ascertained, but in the resultant fight twenty-one of the seamen were killed. The Arabs buried the bodies in the sand near Ra’s Qudifah, close to the Northern most point of the island. The ringleaders were later captured and punished; some received the death penalty and were also buried on the Northern tip of the island