Montevideo Maru

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The Montevideo Maru was a Japanese auxiliary vessel. Prior to the Second World War, it operated as a passenger and cargo vessel, travelling mainly between Asia and South America.

On 22 June 1942, some weeks after the fall of Rabaul, the Montevideo Maru was in that port, where 1,053 Australians, including 845 prisoners of war and 206 civilian internees were embarked.

She was proceeding without any escort to the Chinese island of Hainan, when the ship was sighted by the American submarine USS Sturgeon near the northern Philippine coast, on 30 June. The Sturgeon fired four torpedoes at the Montevideo Maru, not knowing it was carrying Allied troops and civilians, and sinking it before dawn of 1 July.

According to surviving crew member Yoshiaki Yamaji, Australians in the water sang Auld Lang Syne to their trapped mates as the ship sank below the waves.

Of the ship's total complement of about 1,140 (including 88 crew), there were reportedly only 18 survivors, one of whom died soon afterwards.

The sinking of the Montevideo Maru represents the worst maritime disaster in Australia's history.

A memorial to those who lost their lives when the ship sank has been erected at the Repatriation Hospital, Bell Street, Heidelberg, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

[edit] Deceased

Among the missing was Reverend Syd Beazley of the Methodist Mission, the uncle of former ALP opposition leader Kim Beazley.

Grandfather of former Midnight Oil lead singer and current Rudd government minister Peter Garrett was also lost. The loss of his grandfather on the Monevideo Maru is retold in the Midnight Oil song In the Valley.

Six members of the band of the Salvation Army Citadel, Brunswick who were stretcher bearers in the AIF.

Anthony John King, civilian working for the Post-master General's Department, Rabaul, born 1920, Melbourne, Victoria.