Centaur - 75 years

This year is the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur by Japanese torpedo off the coast of South Queensland around 4.00am on 14th May 1943.

We like to attend the commemoration of this wartime disaster each year at the Australian War Memorial, in memory of Rob's Dad Allan who was one of the few survivors. Of the 332 persons on board only 64 survived. 

Each year at the Last Post ceremony there is a focus on someone who lost their life on the Centaur. Private Athol Povey (from Queanbeyan) of the 2/12 Field Ambulance was the focus of this commemoration. He was only 21 when he was killed, two years younger than Allan. There looked to be family members here tonight laying wreaths - so sad.......

The Last Post ceremony is perfectly beautiful; simple but exquisitely layered and disciplined. We were standing much closer to the presenters this year and got to admire up close the incredible synchronicity of the "catapault team" presenting arms. Their efforts were even more arresting than the the noisy mobs of cockatoos in the space of open blue sky above the Pool of Remembrance.

It's almost dark by the time the service has ended. We're surprised by the number of navy personnel and American Embassy people here tonight. Security is tight and there are quite a few black shiny cars waiting to pick up all the suits at the end of the night. The War Memorial however looks beautiful at any time of the day or night.

Mothers Day - yin and yang

A lovely start to Mothers Day today... breakfast prepared by Joshy and Ella: French toast and all the trimmings (YUM), then a long walk (under grey skies) to burn off some calories then some time in the garden to admire the girls' gymnastics skills........

Then this evening, Rob and I attended the sombre and beautiful Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial (back in Campbell again).  Each year on the 14th May the Last Post service is dedicated to the victims (members of the 2/12th Field ambulance) of the Centaur - the Australian Hospital Ship that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine at 4.10am on May 14, 1943, near Brisbane.  Of the 332 people on board only 64 survived.  Rob's dad Allan was one of the survivors of this wartime tragedy, and deeply affected by it, so we try to attend the service each year in his honour.

The life story of one of the Centaur victims is always made the centrepiece of the ceremony. Today we heard the story of Private Alan Thomas Adams. Up until this shocking event his life as a young man in his early twenties was progressing in very similar ways to Allan's - full of promise and adventure... but then......
..........Lest We Forget......

14th May

This week, in 1943, the hospital ship "Centaur" was torpedoed and sunk off the Queensland coast. Clearly marked as a hospital ship its sinking and the loss of over 200 lives saw it became an emotive image for Australian wartime propaganda... 

Rob's dad Allan was one of  only 64 survivors of this disaster........

The 72nd anniversary of the loss of the "Centaur", and so many doctors, nurses and field ambulance officers, was commemorated at the Australian War Memorial last night.

This is part of the address read at the ceremony.....

Built in the early 1920s on the River Clyde in Scotland as a merchant vessel, in early 1943 Centaur was converted to a hospital ship. It had a fully equipped operating theatre and dental surgery, and could carry 252 patients. Centaur was also clearly marked as a hospital ship. Around its freshly painted white hull ran a thick green band, broken in several places by large red crosses. At night, the vessel was brightly illuminated by powerful spotlights. 

Centaur completed only two voyages with patients, before beginning its ill-fated third and final voyage. In the early afternoon of 12 May 1943 the hospital ship steamed from Sydney for Cairns, carrying members of the 2/12th Field Ambulance. Shortly after 4 am on 14 May, while most aboard were asleep, a torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine struck Centaur's port side, hitting the oil fuel tank, which ignited in a massive explosion. 

The bridge superstructure collapsed and the funnel crashed onto the deck. Everything was covered with burning oil and a fire quickly began to roar across the ship. Water, meanwhile, rushed in through the gaping hole in her side. Many of those on board who had not been killed in the explosion or fire were trapped as the ship started to go down bow first, and then broke in two. In just three minutes Centaur was gone.

Of the 332 people on board, only 64 survived. The survivors were at sea for a day and half before they were rescued. 

For a few years before he died in 1999 Allan was the only remaining Queensland survivor of the disaster (atrocity)  and was regularly featured in news stories each May.

It was ironic really because it was a topic never discussed with the family until Allan was well into his sixties - when he started to open up about the experience.  He escaped a flooded cabin, fires caused by the explosion, and a 20 metre drop into the ocean  before eventually making his way onto a makeshift raft on that fateful night. The survivors were rescued, a day and a half later, by the American destroyer USS Mugford. 

Allan was only 22 years old when this happened. He ignored injuries from his fall for many years - but later in life his injuries certainly made their presence felt, resulting in spinal surgery and a great loss in mobility.

The Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial is very dignified - and quite moving despite the spare simplicity of the setting.

 Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Centaur Association and the Canberra RSL.

Schoolchildren and other visitors are all very respectful.....although the cockatoos and galahs shrieking across the clear skies above the pool of remembrance were a distracting presence at times.

 The 2/12th Field Ambulance members who died on the Centaur in 1943 are listed on Panels 87, 88 and 89 of the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour - way too many names.