Owen Gun Goes To Sea ? Part 3
This is another draft chapter from the Owen Gun Book, the finished chapters will be printed in the book. These electronic chapters are from a different part of the book and will keep changing (growing I hope) with the contributions and discovery of further information. If you have any information to contribute or criticisms please email owenguns@spiderweb.com.au as none of these articles are finalised. Ron Owen
The Owen Gun and The Centaur.
The Sinking.
At approximately 4:10 a.m. on 14 May 1943, while on her second real voyage after completing testing the AHS (Australian Hospital Ship) Centaur was bound from Sydney to Port Moresby, Centaur was torpedoed by an unknown and unsighted submarine. The torpedo struck the portside oil fuel tank approximately two metres below the waterline, creating a hole 8 to 10 metres (26 to 33 ft) across, igniting the fuel, and setting the ship on fire from the bridge aft. Many of those onboard were immediately killed by concussion or burned to death. Centaur quickly took on water through the impact site, rolled to port, then began to sink bow-first in several hundred metres of water, submerging completely in less than three minutes. The rapid sinking prevented the deployment of lifeboats, although two broke off from Centaur as she sank, along with several damaged life rafts.
Map of the approximate sinking, showing where items were washed up on the beaches.
Centaur is recorded to have sunk at a point approximately 24 nautical miles (44 km) east-northeast of Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. This position was extrapolated from the dead reckoning position calculated at 4:00 a.m. by Second Officer Richard G. Rippon at the end of his watch, and taking into consideration Centaur’s course and estimated speed at the time of the attack.
Seaman Matthew Morris remembers:
I finished the twelve to four watch and I called the four to eight watch to go down, including me mate. And I was just havin’ a cup of tea – and this big explosion, and the ship gave a shudder, and the skylight fell in on us. And I don’t really know how I got out of the mess room … and I’d say there was a dozen steps up to the deck. And I really can’t remember going up them. But then I was washed off the back of the ship and then I realised I was in the water.
At 4.10am, a crewman was watching a school of porpoises that had joined the ship, when he noticed a long thin line of foam heading towards the side of the ship. Seconds later, the torpedo struck the Centaur near the engine room and the main oil bunker tanks.
The bunkers exploded. Men not killed instantly by the first blast were incinerated moments later. Many who survived the blast and the flame were killed by flying wreckage or drowned. Panicked people had to wake, grab their life jackets, and find their way up on to the deck, through bodies, water, wreckage and fire. In three minutes the ship sank.
Japanese Model 95 Torpedo nearly as long as the Centaur was wide. Why would the Captain of the submarine use one of his 8 to sink the Centaur when he could have surfaced and sunk the Hospital Ship with his deck gun.
Once on deck they found that the lifeboats and rafts were damaged or unable to be cut free quickly. Many who made it to the decks could not swim, and drowned. Others were sucked under as the ship sank.
All were now covered in thick oil. Survivors, many with broken limbs, burns or internal injuries, now tried to find wreckage to support them. Some clinging to wreckage were taken by sharks. And, to the horror of the survivors, the submarine now surfaced in the dark.
The Survivors
Sister Ellen Savage was asleep in her bunk when the Centaur collapsed around her, she stated
Merle Morton and myself were awakened by two terrific explosions and practically thrown out of bed …I registered mentally that it was a torpedo explosion … In that instant the ship was in flames … we ran into Colonel Manson, our commanding officer, in full dress even to his cap and ‘Mae West’ life-jacket, who kindly said ‘That’s right girlies, jump for it now.’ The first words I spoke was to say ‘Will I have time to go back for my great-coat?’ as we were only in our pyjamas. He said ‘No’ and with that climbed the deck and jumped and I followed … the ship was commencing to go down. It all happened in three minutes.
The suction of the sinking Centaur dragged Sister Savage down into a whirlpool of moving metal and wood. Here her ribs, nose and palate were broken, her ear drums perforated and she sustained multiple bruising. Then she was propelled to the surface in the middle of an oil slick.
Years later Seaman Morris recalled that the Centaur sank quickly. Morris found himself alone in the water, eyes full of salt and oil. He found a small raft and then spotted his mate, Bobbie Teenie, whom he hauled aboard. In their loneliness and fear he remembers they made a great fuss of each other. As day dawned they spotted a bigger raft on the horizon and pulled over to it as their own was slowly sinking. Sister Savage had also found her way to this bigger raft.
This larger raft was part of the Centaur’s wheel house. The senior surviving officer, Second Officer Rippon, encouraged all those clinging to smaller rafts and debris to make for this so called ‘survival island’. Little food and water was available; many, including Sister Savage, were lightly dressed; and medical supplies for the injured were non existent.
So, huddled together, the survivors spent the daylight hours of Friday 14 May. In this crisis individual examples engendered optimism and hope. Seaman Morris led them in vigorous singing of ‘Roll Out The Barrel’ and ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
Captain Salt, a Torres Strait pilot, despite his severe burns, kept assuring everyone that rescue must be on the way. Lieutenant Colonel Outridge and Sister Savage did what they could for the wounded. Sharks circled them and occasionally nosed the rafts.
Sister Ellen Savage GM after her ordeal.
On the raft Seaman Morris was crammed up next to the badly burned Private Walder. Morris recalls Walder’s death:
He’d died next to me and his burns just stuck on my arm … And I said to Sister Savage who was practically opposite me, I said: ‘I think this young chap’s dead’. And she said: ‘Are you sure’. And I said: ‘Well, I’m pretty sure’. As she felt over she said: ‘He’s passed on’. So I took his identification disc off him and his name was John Walder, New South Wales army man. I gave his identification disc to Sister Savage and she said: ‘Will you answer the Rosary?’. And I said: ‘Yes, I’ll do my best’.
She said the Rosary and I answered it and we buried him at sea.
Seaman Martin Pash remembered that the Centaur “just went straight down. There was no noise or anything – a lot of people calling out, the nurses and all … The deck boy brought Sister Savage on. She had a fractured jaw. You wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with her but she suffered very badly. She had broken ribs and [was] bruised and one of the fellas gave her his overcoat to put over her.”
Despite her own injuries, 30-year-old Sister Ellen Savage nursed the wounded and boosted the morale of the others. The other eleven nurses all died. After a day and a half adrift on life rafts, the 64 survivors were spotted by an RAAF Anson and recovered by the destroyer USS Mugford.
Corporal Maurice Peter Thomas (VX64840) a member of the medical staff of AHS Centaur escaped from the sinking ship and managed to locate a piece of planking at Daybreak.
Corporal Thomas and Privates Jones and Private Mc Cosker, and Privates Taylor and three of the ships crew all clambered on this piece of planking. They spent all day on the planking. Between midnight and daybreak the next day (Saturday) they heard the sound of engines about 3/4 mile away. Two emergency flares were lit by some survivors on two rafts. They could not see anything. A crew member of Centaur indicated that it was a submarine engine that they could hear. He instructed the survivors on the rafts to extinguish the flares. The engines stopped soon after this.
Second officer, Mr R. G. Rippon, indicated that he had heard the engines of a surfaced submarine between mid-night and 4 a.m. on 15 May 1943.
This is the sister ship KD7 Kaida Class Number 176 in the same class as the submarine Number 177 that more than likely sunk the Centaur.
Several survivors later claimed to have heard the attacking submarine moving on the surface while they were adrift, and the submarine was seen by Able Seaman J. Cecich and Seamen’s Cook F. Martin indicated that they had also sighted the submarine. Francis Martin, the ships cook who was floating alone on a hatch cover, out of sight from the main cluster of survivors, described the submarine to Naval Intelligence following the survivors’ return to land; his description matched the profile of a KD7 type Kaidai class submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Francis Martin related, “They fell silent, and waited for the expected machine-gunning to start – but the submarine soon submerged.
Then began the second stage of the horrific experience – trying to survive in the ocean until rescue came.” I am sitting, hunched on a Carley float, huddled against a shivering companion.” he said. “What was it?” says a voice. “Bloody Japs, a torpedo,” says someone. Not a bloody hope. God knows how I got out! When dawn breaks there are heavy clouds and we look about. Another Carley float is about 50 yards (50m) away with more figures, so we paddle with broken boards to get together. Someone throws a rope and we tie about 20 feet (6m) apart.
In the daylight, I recognise Nell Savage, the only nurse to survive from the 12 on the ship. Nell is looking after the 15-year-old ship’s cabin boy.
My mate next to me is naked and shivering so I give him my jacket. We’re not cold, just all very shocked. Many are injured and burned, one has large pieces of wood through his arms and Nell says: “Don’t try to take them out, or he might bleed badly.”
So we sit through the day – still thick overcast. We hear planes but all are above the clouds, and finally night falls.
Morning, still overcast, and we realise we have visitors. Sharks – as far down as we can see more and more! One circles each raft and rubs his back on the rope between; no wonder we’ve lost nearly 300 mates.”
The survivors spent 36 hours in the water, using barrels, wreckage, and the two damaged lifeboats for flotation. During this time, they drifted approximately 19.6 nautical miles (36.3 km) north east of Centaur’s calculated point of sinking and spread out over an area of 2 nautical miles (3.7 km). At least four ships and several aircraft were seen by the survivors, but their attention was not attracted.
So quickly had the Centaur sunk that no SOS message was sent. Of the finally claimed 332 who had sailed from Sydney only 64 were found clinging to rafts and debris. The 2/12th Field Ambulance had virtually been wiped out. Sister Savage was the only nurse to survive. For her inspiring example on the raft she was awarded the George Medal.
The initial public reaction to the attack on Centaur was one of outrage, significantly different to that displayed following the loss of Australian warships or merchant vessels. As a hospital ship, the attack was a breach of the tenth section of the Hague Convention of 1907, and as such was a war crime. The Australian Government delivered an official protest to Japan over the incident, but never brought charges against the captain of the submarine, when he was being tried for other war crimes.. The sinking of Centaur drew strong reactions from both Prime Minister Curtin and General Douglas MacArthur.
The Politics and Propaganda.
In the Prime Minister John Curtin address to Parliament he said,
The Prime Minister of Australia at that time John Curtin.
“It is with the deepest regret that the Commonwealth Government has learned of the loss of the Australian hospital ship “Centaur” and I know that the news will come also as a profound shock to the Australian people. The attack which took place within a few miles of the Queensland coast bears all the marks of wantonness and deliberation. Not only will it stir our people into a more acute realisation of the type of enemy against whom we are fighting, but I am confident also that this deed will shock the conscience of the whole civilised world and demonstrate to all who may have had any lingering doubts the unscrupulous and barbarous methods by which the Japanese conduct warfare.
To the next-of-kin of those who are lost the Government and nation extend heartfelt sympathy, which is the deeper since those persons were non-combatants engaged on an errand of mercy, and were by all the laws of warfare immune from attack.
Curtin also stated that the sinking was “an entirely inexcusable act, undertaken in violation of the convention to which Japan is a party and of all the principles of common humanity.”, while MacArthur reflected the common Australian view when he stated that the sinking was an example of Japanese “limitless savagery”.
Politicians urged the public to use their rage to fuel the war effort, and Centaur became a symbol of Australia’s determination to defeat what appeared to be a brutal and uncompromising enemy. The Australian Government produced posters depicting the sinking, which called for Australians to “Avenge the Nurses” by working to produce material, purchasing war bonds, or enlisting in the armed forces.
One of the Posters distributed after the sinking.
With some people unable to believe that the Japanese would be so ruthless, rumours began to spread almost immediately after news of the attack was made public. The most common rumour which was aired in the Smiths Weekly was that Centaur had been carrying munitions and soldiers at the time of her sinking, with the Japanese made aware of this prior to her departure. This may have stemmed from the incident involving the ambulance drivers’ weapons during loading in Sydney or it could have been what was placed in the lower deck holds prior to the ship docking at Sydney.
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