AHS Centaur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 AHS Centaur following her conversion to hospital ship. The Red Cross designation "47" can be seen on the bow |
|
| Career British Merchant Navy/Australian Merchant Navy |   |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | early 1923 |
| Builder: | Scott's Shipbuilding & Engineering Company |
| Laid down: | 16 November 1923 |
| Launched: | 1924 |
| Reclassified: | Freighter/passenger vessel (1924-1943) Hospital ship (1943) |
| Status: | Torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-177 on 14 May, 1943 |
| Homeport: | Liverpool, England (registered) Fremantle, Western Australia (1924-1943) Sydney, New South Wales (1943) |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 3,066 tons |
| Length: | 315 ft (96 m) |
| Beam: | |
| Draught: | 6.1 m |
| Speed: | 12.5 knots |
| Capacity: | Pre-1943: 106 passengers (62 first class, 44 second class) 450 livestock Cargo in four holds |
| Complement: | 68 |
| Armament: | Pre-1939: Unarmed (civilian vessel) 1939-1943: 1 x 4 inch Mark IX naval gun, 2 x .303 Vickers machine guns, 2 x paravanes, degaussing equipment 1943: Unarmed (hospital ship) |
Australian Hospital Ship AHS Centaur was a former freighter and ocean liner converted to a hospital ship and attached to Australian naval forces during World War II.
Beginning on the Blue Line's trade route from Fremantle, Western Australia to Singapore in August 1924, Centaur operated as a passenger and cargo vessel in both civilian and military capabilities until 1943, when she was drafted as a hospital ship by Australian forces. On 14 May 1943, Centaur was sunk off the coast of Queensland by a Japanese submarine.
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[edit] Design
Centaur was built at a cost of £146,750 pounds sterling by Scott's Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Greenock, Scotland, for service as a passenger vessel and cargo vessel for the Ocean Steamship Company (better known as Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel Line). Centaur's keel was laid on 16 November 1923, and she entered operation on 29 August 1924.
As Centaur was built specifically for the Fremantle to Singapore trade route, the first ship operated by Blue Funnel Line to be designed so, the capacity to carry cargo, passengers, and livestock was incorporated into the design.[1] Centaur's hull was a 'turret deck' design; the reinforced flat bottom allowing the ship to rest on the ground without damage when low tides caused a port to run dry, a common occurrence in northern Western Australia.[1] A 35 ft (10.5 m) smokestack was included on the ship; as she was powered by a diesel engine; this overly large smokestack was more a concession to tradition than of any practical nature.[1] Centaur had four main holds, with two additional areas used interchangeably for livestock and cargo.[1]
Following her selection as a hospital ship for Australian forces in New Guinea, Centaur was converted in Melbourne, Australia. Originally slated to cost £20,000 Australian pounds, the cost blew out to £55,000, after modifications to the conversion plans were made by multiple agencies, including the Army, Navy, and the trade unions representing sections of the Centaur's crew.[2] The cattle decks were converted to wards and bunkrooms, an operating theatre, dispensary, and dental office were installed, the weapons added at the beginning of the war were stripped, and 900 tons of iron stone were added as ballast.[2]
[edit] Operational History
[edit] 1924-1938
Centaur was the second ship of the name to serve the Blue Funnel Line.[1] She replaced Charon on the Fremantle-Singapore trade route, and continued on the run alone when Charon's sister ship, Gorgon was withdrawn from service in 1928.[3] Centaur filled the profiles of both a tramp steamer and a freight liner, as while she was on a set route between Australia and Singapore, the ship would not call in at the same points on every journey.[3]
The highlight of Centaur's pre-war career was in November 1938, when she responded to a distress call from Japanese whale-chaser Kyo Maru.[3] Centaur took Kyo Maru under tow, taking her to Geraldton, Western Australia.[3]
[edit] 1939-1942
Following the declaration of war in Europe on September 1, 1939, all ships of the British Merchant Navy fell under the command of the British Admiralty on September 3, 1939.[4] Initially, this did not affect Centaur, and she was allowed to continue on her normal route of trade.[4]
On 26 November 1941, Centaur encountered a lifeboat of survivors from the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, following its engagement with HMAS Sydney.[5] Among the 62 survivors was Kormoran's captain, Theodore Detmers.[5] Unwilling to let a group of trained enemy soldiers aboard his vessel, the ship's Master, W.F. Dark, instructed his crew to lower food to the Germans, take on their nine wounded personnel, and then tow the rest in the lifeboat.[5] The damaged lifeboat was swamped, so two of Centaur's lifeboats were lowered for the Germans to ride in.[5] Upon arrival in Carnarvon, Western Australia, the Germans were transferred to Centaur's number 1 hold, before they were placed under military custody and moved to a prisoner-of-war camp.[5]
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on 2 December 1941, Centaur was taken off her route by the Admiralty and ordered to Sydney, where she began transfer runs from the east coast of Australia to New Guinea.[5] On these runs, she carried soldiers and war materiel for the beginning Pacific War.[5]
[edit] 1943
Following the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific, the Australian Government realised the need for a new hospital ship to be added to their forces, one smaller than the three ships used at the time to bring wounded back from the Middle East; AHS Manunda, AHS Wanganella, and Oranje.[6] No ship of the Australian Merchant Navy was suitable to operate in the confines of the Indonesian islands.[6] A request by the Australian Department of Defence to the British Admiralty resulted in the transfer of Centaur to Australian control on 4 January 1943.[6] She was sent to Melbourne, and underwent a conversion to a Hospital Ship, as defined by the Geneva Conventions. [2]
Following the two-month conversion, which was completed at almost triple the original cost, AHS Centaur was capable of mercy voyages of up to 18 days without resupply, and could carry up to 280 cot-bound wounded in tropical conditions. [2] Centaur was repainted red, white, and green, with Red Cross livery, and registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross during the first week of February 1943, receiving the designation number 47 in Red Cross records.[7]
Centaur entered operation as a hospital ship on 12 March 1943.[8] The early stages of Centaur's first voyage as a hospital ship were test and transport runs; a mechanical shakedown run between Melbourne and Sydney and a test run transporting wounded from Townsville to Brisbane ensuring that the ship functioned as she had been modified to do, and was capable of fulfilling the role of a medical vessel.[8] Once this had been ascertained, Centaur was tasked with the delivery of medical personnel to Port Moresby, New Guinea, returning to Brisbane with Australian and American wounded, along with a small number of prisoners of war.[9]
Arriving in Sydney on 8 May 1943, Centaur was re-provisioned at Darling Harbour, before departing for Cairns, Queensland on 12 May 1943.[10] From there, her destination was again New Guinea.[10] On board at the time were 75 crew, 8 army officers, 12 army nurses, 45 other army personnel, 192 soldiers from 2/12 Army Field Ambulance, and 1 ship pilot.[11]
[edit] Sinking
At approximately 4.10 am on 14 May 1943, while on her second run from Sydney to Port Moresby, New Guinea, Centaur was torpedoed by an unknown and unsighted submarine.[12] The torpedo struck Centaur on the port side, igniting Centaur's fuel supply and sinking the ship in almost two kilometres of water.[13] Centaur is recorded to have sunk at a point 24 nautical miles east-northeast of Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland.[14] Centaur was submerged in less than three minutes, preventing the deployment of life rafts.[12] Several who escaped the ship were killed by shrapnel or burning fuel-oil.[15]
| Survivor breakdown[16] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Group | Embarked | Survived |
| Crew | 75 | 30 |
| Army officers | 8 | 0 |
| Army nurses | 12 | 1 |
| Other Army | 45 | 1 |
| 2/12 Field Ambulance | 192 | 32 |
Of the 332 persons onboard at the time of the sinking, only 64 survived.[17] These survivors remained adrift for thirty-six hours, drifting approximately 19.6 nautical miles north east of Centaur's calculated point of sinking.[18] During this time, several survivors claimed after the event to have heard the attacking submarine moving on the surface.[13] The submarine was visually sighted by the ship's cook, Francis Martin, who was floating alone and separate from the main groups on a hatch cover.[13] Martin described the submarine to Naval Intelligence following the survivors' return to land; his description matching the profile of a Kaidai class submarine (KD7 type) of the Imperial Japanese Navy.[13] Identification of the submarine responsible was not possible until 1979, when the Japanese Government revealed in an official war history that the Kaidai class I-177, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Hajime Nakagawa, was the responsible vessel.[13][15]
The survivors were spotted by an Avro Anson aircraft, who directed United States Navy ship USS Mugford to the location of the sinking.[19] Mugford reported the rescue effort underway at 2.14 pm on 15 May, and returned to Brisbane around midnight of the same day.[17] Neither search resulted in the discovery of additional survivors.
[edit] Reaction
The sinking of Centaur drew strong reactions from General Douglas MacArthur and Australian Prime Minister John Curtin,[15] as the ship had been illuminated and marked as a hospital ship as per the Geneva Conventions, and the act of sinking a ship so marked was considered to be a war crime.
Centaur became a symbol of Australia's determination to win a war against what appeared to be a brutal and uncompromising enemy. Posters depicting the sinking began to appear in mid-1943, calling for Australians to "Avenge the Nurses" by working to produce materiel, purchasing war bonds, or enlisting in the armed forces.[20]
Initially, Japan stated that the attack was in retaliation for American aerial attacks on two of their own hospital ships,[21] although they did not make clear at the time which submarine had been responsible for the attack on Centaur.[22] Very little information was forthcoming on the events until the publication of Japan's war history in 1979.
[edit] Memorial
A memorial to Centaur was unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the sinking, 14 May 1993, at Point Danger, Coolangatta, Queensland. It consists of a monumental stone topped with a cairn, surrounded by a tiled moat with memorial plaques explaining the commemoration. The memorial is in turn surrounded by a park with a boardwalk, overlooking the sea, that has plaques for other ships lost during World War II, including both Merchant and Royal Australian Navy ships. A total of 34 ships were attacked off the east coast of Australia by ships, submarines, and naval mines; of these 13 were torpedoed but did not sink; of the 4 struck by mines, 1 sank.
The unveiling of the memorial was performed by Minister for Veteran's Affairs, Senator the Honourable John Faulkner. Apart from Australian survivors and local dignitaries, a contingent from USS Mugford travelled from the United States for the event.
Although the memorial at Point Danger is considered to be the primary commemoration of the incident, several other tributes were made prior to 1993, all of which still exist. These include: a cairn at Caloundra, Queensland, erected by the local Rotary International Club, a stained glass memorial window and plaque listing the names of those lost in the attack at Concord Repatriation General Hospital, and the naming of the "Centaur Ward" at Heidelberg Repatriation General Hosiptal.[21]
[edit] References
- Smith, A.E. [1991] (May 1992). Three Minutes of Time - the torpedoing of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, Second Printing, Miami: Tasman Press. ISBN 0-646-07631-0.
- ^ a b c d e Smith (1992). Pg. 9
- ^ a b c d Smith (1992). Pg 21
- ^ a b c d Smith (1992). Pg. 13
- ^ a b Smith (1992). Pg. 15
- ^ a b c d e f g Smith (1992). Pg 16
- ^ a b c Smith (1992). Pg. 19
- ^ Smith (1992). Pg. 39, 66
- ^ a b Smith (1992). Pg. 23
- ^ Smith (1992). Pg. 24
- ^ a b Smith (1992). Pg. 25
- ^ Smith (1992). Pg. 27
- ^ a b Smith (1992) Pg. 28
- ^ a b c d e Smith (1992). Pg. 29
- ^ [June 2005] "Appendix V", A Critical Vulnerability - The Impact of the Submarine Threat on Australia’s Maritime Defence (1915-1954) (PDF), Sea Power Centre – Australia, p. 358. ISBN 0-642-29625-1.
- ^ a b c Stephens, Tony. "Birthday beers spared George", The Sydney Morning Herald, John Fairfax Holdings, 2007-01-18, p. 20.
- ^ Numerical comparison of crew and survivor statisitics. Smith (1992). Pg. 27, 34
- ^ a b Smith (1992). Pg 34
- ^ Smith (1992) Pg. 26
- ^ Smith (1992). Pg. 33
- ^ Sinking of the Centaur - Commemoration. DVA.gov.au - Commemorative Publications. Australian Government - Department of Veteran's Affairs. Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
- ^ a b Smith (1992) Pg. 39
- ^ Sinking of the Centaur. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on February 7, 2007.
