Australian Hospital Ship Centaur found.

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by spidge, Dec 19, 2009.

  1. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Couple of shots here mate. Did she have any wounded onboard at the time?

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  3. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    No Wounded.

    The Disaster

    "Centaur" was steaming north from Sydney on her second voyage to New Guinea as a hospital ship in May 1943. Onboard were 75 Merchant Navy crew, the ship's army medical staff comprising 8 Officers, 12 Nurses, 45 other ranks, and 192 members of the 2/12 Field Ambulance. These latter troops were passengers, travelling to New Guinea to set up field medical units. At 0410 hrs. on the third day (14 May) of her voyage north, whilst fully illuminated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, a torpedo from the Japanese submarine "I-177" struck the "Centaur" on the port side, near her oil bunkers. A tremendous explosion rocked the ship and fire broke out.

    Most of the personnel on board were asleep below decks. With the precarious list of the ship and with the sea flooding in they were trapped in their bunks and unable to escape. Many who managed to gain the upper decks were sucked down as the ship floundered.

    Of the 332 persons on board, perhaps less than a hundred actually found themselves floating on the surface when the ship disappeared. Many were badly burned or injured, and most had ingested oil which covered the sea in the vicinity.

    Only one doctor and one nurse survived. In the ensuing 34 hours before rescuers arrived, injuries and attacks by sharks caused the death of a number of survivors.

    About mid afternoon of the 15th May, an RAAF Anson search aircraft sighted the survivors, who had drifted about 20 miles to the north-east. The destroyer, USS "Mungford" was directed to the scene, and the Commander, showing great courage in waters threatened by enemy submarines, ordered his vessel to heave to and proceeded to pick up the remaining 64 survivors. All were given first aid, and were taken ashore in Brisbane for hospital treatment.
     
  4. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    History of the Ship

    "Centaur" was launched at Greenock, Scotland in 1924, for the Ocean Steamship Coy, later known as the Blue Funnel Line. She was designed with a strengthened flat bottom, to service ports along the Western Australian coast, where the large tidal range could leave vessels lying in the mud at low tide.

    Her trading route was from Singapore, through the ports of the Netherlands West Indies, to Australia. In 1938 she picked up a distress call from the Japanese whaler, "Kyo-Maru" and was able to tow the vessel to Geraldton.

    On the 19th of November 1941 "Centaur" came across survivors of the German armed merchant cruiser, "Kormoran". A few hours before, this ship had sunk the Australian cruiser, H.M.A.S. "Sydney" of the Western Australian Coast. "Centaur" towed the "Kormoran's" lifeboats, containing 62 German Navy crew members, to Carnarvon.

    Early in 1943 the Australian Government required a small, shallow draft vessel for hospital ship duties, for short voyages between Australian East Coast ports and New Guinea. "Centaur" was ideal for this role, and the U.K. authorities made her available.

    Conversion to a hospital ship configuration was carried out in Melbourne. The conversion was completed in record time, and the "Centaur" sailed from Melbourne for Sydney on 12 March, 1943.

    The ship's medical staff joined the vessel in Sydney and she sailed from that port for Brisbane on the 21st March, 1943. At Brisbane various improvements and changes were made to make her accommodation more suitable for patients travelling in tropical conditions.

    "Centaur" made a coastal voyage to Townsville to take on board sick and wounded servicemen, for treatment in the main city hospitals of Brisbane. At Brisbane she embarked American and Australian medical personnel as passengers to Port Moresby.

    Wounded Australian and American soldiers were then taken onboard at Moresby, and the ship proceeded to Sydney, where she arrived on the 8th May 1943. None could know that this vessel of mercy had only six more days of service.

    "Centaur" departed Sydney on her final voyage at 10.44 am on Wednesday 12th May 1943. Tugs nudged her out from the wharf, shown so graphically in the painting at the top of this page. All those onboard felt safe in "Centaur" protected by the Red Cross and the rules of the Geneva Convention.

    The heroes and heroines lost in the "Centaur" tragedy gave their lives for their country. They have been deprived of the future we have all experienced. As we read these lines, our hearts must go out to the loved ones who lost their dear husbands, brothers, sisters and friends.

    Images and text reproduced from "Centaur Memorial and Walk of Remembrance Unveiling Ceremony Booklet" of 14 May 1993

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    She doesn't look that big a ship and with 332 on board I would have thought it would be cramped.

    Any ideas how many casualties she could transport?

    Andy
     
  6. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    From: Tweed Heads Historical Society - AHS Centaur

    "Rest in Peace"


    ROLL OF HONOUR


    MERCHANT NAVY

    Abbot, D. Grainger, R. Milligan, D.I. Alexander, G.M. Hall, H.R. Morris, A.J. Behan, T. Hart, R.F. Morris, T.V. Bowden, J.O. Hughes, T.S. Murray, G.A. Brandin, G. Kaki, L. Page, E.C. Buck, J.C. Laird, R.M. Pearl, S.O. Capper, J. Lamble, H.E. Pritchard, T.E. Carey, G.E.J. Le Blanc, J. Rayner, A. Clark, C. Lee, M.J. Siddons, F. Cockerhill, D. Lockhart, V. Simpson, E.B. Cuthill, W.D. Long, G.E. Spence, R.J. Downie, W.R. Longden, S. Strack, S.L. Fox, F.W. Lyons, J. Summers, E.J. Gallagher, J. MacLean, D.R. Sykes, K. Gannon, F.J. McKinnon, W.J. Warner, W.A.

    SHIPS MEDICAL STAFF

    Adams, M.L. Johnson, L.G. Ockwell, L.G. Aitchison, G.F. Kerr, J.A. O'Donnell, A.M. Burrett, W.E. King, E. O'Sullivan, J.C. Burroughs, S.P. Laverick, E.G. Perry, N.E. Clark, J.M. Law, R. Phillips, N.E. Clark, W.F.D. LeBrun, C.R. Rutherford, E.M. Clegg, P.L. McFarlane, M.H. Shaw, E.A Collins, L.F. McLean, N. Smellie, M.A. Cooke, A.J. Manson, C.P. Thomas, G.L. Cooley, G.G. Maynard, A.F. Walker, W. Haultain, H.F.J.C. Maynard, J.C. Williams, L.L. Hindmarsh, B.F. Melbom, E.E. Williams, M.A. Holland, L. Moore, D.W. Wyllie, D.J. Howson, A. Moss, L.J. Jewell, S.A. Moston, M.

    2/12th FIELD AMBULANCE

    Anderson, F.W.C. Fehrenbach, H.S. Lowe, H.H. Salmon, L.J. Annis-Brown, J. Findlay, R.W. Lucas, J. Sender, I.H. Annis-Brown, R. Fishwick, C.E. Lynagh, F.J. Skafte, L.R. Baily, W.H. Foley, S.D. Lynne, C.E. South, A.E. Barlow, T.D.H. Forrest, J.M. Lyttleton, S.F. Stanley, J.E, Barnes, W.E.C. Friedrich, V. McCaskie, T.E. Stephens, H.B. Bedkober, L.L. Garbutt, D.R. McDougall, W.O. Stevens, J.A. Benton, K.E. Garfit, W.D. McGuire, H.J. Stewart, J. Black, W.C. Geaghan, W.T. McKay, C.S. Stubbs, R.G. Blackman, R.McG. Goffett, C.A. McSkimming, S.G. Swan, L.R. Bladen, H.A. Gordon, C.T. Marshall, J.B. Swinburn, R. Bourchier, K.P. Gore, W.H. Miles, R.W. Taggart, J. Bowen, D.L. Gunning, A. Miley, T.H. Taylor, J. Boyd, A. Haynes, K.R. Miller, C.O. Thelander, C.E. Bracken, P.J. Hayward, C.E. Montgomery, C.G. Thomas, J.V. Bracken, J.W. Hembrow, J.H. Moran, J. O'N. Thompson, D.L. Brewer, B.W.H. Henderson, L.J. Mort, R.F. Thompson, H.W. Brown, A.V. Hewison, R.J. Mycock, F.J. Thorpe, J. Browne, J.McG. Hoare, J.W. Newell, E.L. Upton, G.H. Bush, G.R. Hodgkindon, N.A. Oakley, H.V. Vincent, E.C.M. Butt, W.J. Holloway, S.G. O'Brien, M.J. Walder, J.J. Carey, W.R. Jackman, V.M. O'Connor, R. Walker, N.L. Chadwick, L.N. Johnston, R.C. O'Neill, T.W. Wattus, E.O. Chapman, E.A. Johnston, S.R. Overett, H.H. West, W.C. Clark, L.S. Jones, G.R. Owens, E.L.V. Westendorf, R.H.G. Clark, N.S. Kemp, A.R. Perrett, E.R. Wheeler, N.E.W. Claydon, J.A. Key, J.J.R. Povey, A.R. Williams, A.H. Cripps, L.J. Lambert, C. Power, E.J. Williams, D.K. Cross, H.R.T. Le Grand, P.M.P. Reid, A. Williams, E.F. Cummings, M.H. Leask, A.R. Richardson, C. Wilson, A. Denne, F.J. Leask, H.M. Richardson, H.F. Wood, A. Doherty, J.P. Leask, H.H. Roberts, H.O. Wood, L.S. Donohoe, H.M. Lee, T.A. Robinson, C.M.S. Woods, C. Dutfield, C.C. Lesnie, N.M.G. Robinson, R.L. Wright, G. Fawcett, G. Loader, J.J.J.



    ATTACHED PERSONNEL FROM AASC

    Adams, A.T. Etheridge, G.R.G. Lawson, W.T. Sheard, H.E. Alexander, J.R. Evans, J.K. Lillas, R.L. Shepherd, G.P. Bayley, A.N. Evans, W.A. Long, A. Simpson, E.J. Bond, S.R. Ferrow, J.W. Lotze, E.L. Sweeney, S.E. Burns, W.R. Fortier, A.D. Lyneham, H.L. Thomas, A.K. Bush, G.F. Fortier, F.L. McGuire, C.P. Trigg, B.S. Cavanagh, R.C. Fowler, C.A. Mansfield, J.K. Westhorp, S.B. Colefax, B.D. Galvin, S.G. Murphy. G.G. Wilson, G.A.T. Colemane, W.J. Hayward, T.H. Pain, R.A. Winder, G.A. Collins, H.S. Hogan, K.F. Palmer, V.A. Winterflood, A.A.
     
  7. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    She doesn't look that big a ship and with 332 on board I would have thought it would be cramped.

    Any ideas how many casualties she could transport?

    Andy

    Hi Andy,

    Not sure however it would not have been a great number! What the conversion altered her numbers to is not known with a quick search. She was small as her requirement was to be a "Low Draft" vessel.

    M.V. Centaur (34k) 1923 - 1943


    • Owner: Alfred Holt Ocean Steamship Company (The Blue Funnel Line), Liverpool
    • Builder: Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Greenock
    • Year Built: 1924
    • Length: 315.7 ft. (96 metres)
    • Beam: 48.2 ft. (14.7 metres)
    • Depth: 21,5 ft. (6.6 metres)
    • Gross tonnage: 3,222
    • Net tonnage: 1901
    • Engine: 4-stroke, 6-cylinder, oil-fired, blast-injected Burmeister & Wain
    • Decks: 2 tween decks and upper 'shade' deck
    • Holds/Hatches: 4
    • Grain space: 240,000 cu ft (6,800 cu metres)
    • Bale space: 220,000 cu ft (6,200 cu metres)
    • Livestock capacity: 72
    • Passenger capacity: 72
    • Official number: 147275

    Conversion from Passenger Liner (29k) to Hospital Ship

    The Motor Vessel CENTAUR was converted from a passenger/cargo liner into a hospital ship over a two month period. The conversion took place at Williamstown, at the mouth of Melbourne's Yarra River, under the supervision of the United Ship Services. Upon completion Centaur's silhouette had changed little. Only an expert would have picked out the cot lift on the after end of the midships. However, her appearance on the water looked totally different, thanks to a vibrant new colour scheme and hospital ship (85k) markings.

    A Hospital Ship Day...

    Her sombre, all-over passenger/cargo liner battleship grey had been replaced by a kaleidoscope of vivid white, green, red, black and dark yellow. The hull and upperworks were pure white. A green band 1.2 metres wide stretched from stem (68k) to stern (60k) on both sides, interspersed in three places by red crosses two metres high and wide. On each bow, above the green band, was a black square with the Centaur's hospital ship identification number - 47 - stencilled in white. The once-blue, once-grey funnel was now dark yellow with a 1.2 metre red cross high up on each side. Another red cross, this time six metres, glared up from the deck of the monkey island above the wheelhouse, plus another, 7.3 metres, from the deck of the docking bridge aft. One more stood vertically down from the docking bridge, facing aft. The lifeboats were painted white, with a green band to identify them as belonging to a hospital. To complete her identity, the Centaur flew the Red Cross flag on the foremast and the Blue Ensign at the stern.


    A Hospital Ship By Night...

    Internal red neon lights lit up the crosses on the funnel and the one facing aft from the docking bridge. Floodlighting illuminated the red crosses on the ship's side; a row of green lights the green band. When AHS Centaur later put to sea, the deck officers complained that the starboard forward floodlights interfered with their night vision, so were left off. Regardless of this minor infringement, it mattered not from which angle or under what conditions (bad visibility excepted) an observer viewed the Centaur - from sea level or in the sky, day or night - her red crosses were blatantly visible. She could not fail to be recognised as anything other than a non-combatant hospital ship - or so one would have thought.
     
  8. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    Couple of shots here mate. Did she have any wounded onboard at the time?





    Hi Andy,

    Conversion completed, she could transport 250 "Bedridden Patients".

    A little on her refit here:

    AHS Centaur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


    Cheer

    Geoff
     
  9. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    The Japanese official war history makes clear that it was submarine 1-177, under the command of Lt Commander Nakagawa who had sunk the Centaur. Lt Commander Nakagawa was convicted as a war criminal for firing on survivors of the British Chivalry which his ship had sunk in the Indian Ocean.

    Apparently he ordered that the survivors be machine gunned. He only received 4 years in prison.
     
  10. Recce_Mitch

    Recce_Mitch Very Senior Member

    Great that the Centaur has been found. Can't wait to see pics. Lt Commander Nakagawa shoud've been hung.

    Cheers
    Paul
     
  11. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    Great that the Centaur has been found. Can't wait to see pics. Lt Commander Nakagawa shoud've been hung.

    Cheers
    Paul

    The Centaur aside, he should have been hung for his orders orders to kill survivors.

    Cheers

    Geoff
     
  12. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

  13. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I can't say I've really looked at war crimes trials from the Far East and I've only scratched the tip of the European ones but it does seem to me that the Japanese suspects got off more lightly than the Europeans.
     
  14. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Now that the wreck has been located, what does the government intend to do as it is I suspect classed as a wargrave.

    Placing a memorial Plaque on site would be a great gesture to honour those who lost their lives.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  15. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Great news
    Lokking forward to seeing the pictures there is always something haunting about seeing a ship in this kind of setting.

    oldman
     
  16. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    I can't say I've really looked at war crimes trials from the Far East and I've only scratched the tip of the European ones but it does seem to me that the Japanese suspects got off more lightly than the Europeans.

    Many did get off lightly and should not have. I know Macarthur made up all types of reasons why many of the Japanese should not be pursued as he had an agenda for bringing Japan to a democratic society and did not want it to look like America was being revengeful.

    He virtually vetoed any further war crimes trials after 1947/8? which angered many countries (especially Australia) as there were a multitude of heinous crimes undertaken by the Japanese against our all of our services and nurses.

    If these trials were allowed and the perpetrators of this barbarism were hung or jailed for twenty years they may not still be showing the arrogance that is prevalent today.

    Many were released from their incarceration in other countries returned to Japan and freed after only a few years.

    Many of the other Asian countries who tried them hung between a quarter and a third respectively.

    Of the 70 Japanese Class "A" that were arrested, only the first group of 29 went on trial.

    All of the "uncondemned" (not yet gone to trial) Class "A" war criminals were set free by Gen. MacArthur in 1947 and 1948.
     
  17. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Cheers Geoff......It seems hard to believe she could hold some 600 people in those circumstances.

    There appears to be something ethically wrong with that decision. Executing perpetrators is one thing but letting perpetrators off scot free which says 'you did nothing wrong and it was acceptable in war' is another.
     
  18. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    I think the Japanese experiments with chemical nerve agents had a great bearing on why Japanese war criminals were not brought to book as the US wanted the technology from what little I have read on the subject.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  19. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    That is another reason for me to dislike Mac.
     
  20. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    Memorial service for those who died on torpedoed World War II hospital ship Centaur | Herald Sun

    A MEMORIAL service will be held to honour those who died on the torpedoed World War II hospital ship Centaur.

    The remains of the ship were finally found early yesterday off Moreton Island near Brisbane.
    The discovery comes nearly 67 years after 268 of those on board went to a watery grave in an attack by a Japanese submarine that horrified the nation.
    Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said shipwreck hunters found the ship about 4.30am.
    The wreckage is 2059m down, 30 nautical miles east of the southern tip of Moreton Island.
    It will be marked as a military gravesite and protected by an exclusion zone.
    "Once we've been through the search process, we will go about an appropriate way of preserving and marking this site," said Ms Bligh. "I will be working with the RSL and other appropriate groups including Friends of the Centaur to determine a way to mark this gravesite.

    "Early next year we will look at some type of memorial service where we can finally lay these brave Australians to rest, and to rest in peace," Ms Bligh said.
    "The ship has broken two-thirds the way down, indicating where the torpedo is likely have hit it.
    "These Australians who lost their lives in the service of our country can rest in peace."
    Search director David Mearns said the Centaur was relatively intact, although the hull was partially broken.
    "The Centaur lies in one piece on the lower flank of a narrow gully, which measures 150 metres wide and about 90 metres deep and is bounded by steep walls on either side - one with a slope of roughly 45 degrees," he wrote on his blog yesterday morning.
    Ms Bligh said Mr Mearns and his crew would return to the Centaur in a few weeks with submarines and submersible cameras to film and document the site.
    The Australian and Queensland governments jointly committed $4 million to the search.
    The enemy sub hit the Centaur, a clearly marked hospital ship, on May 14, 1943. The atrocity, against the rules of war, prompted a furious official complaint to Japan. But no admission of guilt came until 1979.

    The ship had sailed from Sydney for Port Moresby with 332 on board - 75 merchant navy crew, 64 medical staff, and 149 men of the 2/12th Field Ambulance with 44 attached personnel.
    One of three remaining Centaur survivors, 87-year-old Martin Pash of Ivanhoe, said yesterday he was listening to his car radio when the news flashed in.
    "It was a bit of a shock. I thought to myself, 'God'," he said.
    A 20-year-old merchant seaman when the torpedo hit, he says he has relived those horrifying hours many times including nightmares, but even more so yesterday. "You never forget," he added.
    Last May, hundreds of pupils of Centaur Primary School on the Gold Coast gave Mr Pash an ovation at a memorial service.
    He says he is excited at the prospect of viewing the images of the ship from the search vessel. "I'd like to see it myself," he said.
    The Queensland Nurses Union said the finding would allow the 11 nurses who died on board to be finally honoured and remembered.
    QNU secretary Gay Hawksworth said the sinking of the hospital ship became a potent symbol of injustice during World War II, and the tragedy was used as propaganda for the war effort.
    "I know many nurses, on hearing this news, will take a minute to reflect on this tragedy and the vital role nurses have played in wartime," said Ms Hawksworth.
     

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