Fed: Memorial planned for Centaur victims

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2009
Fed: Memorial planned for Centaur victims

By Darren Cartwright

BRISBANE, Dec 20 AAP - A memorial service will be held to honour those who died on
the torpedoed World War II hospital ship Centaur, which has been found off Moreton Island
near Brisbane.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said shipwreck hunters found the ship about 4.30am (AEST)
on Sunday, much earlier than they expected, 2,059m below the surface, 30 nautical miles
due east from 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 entire search process we will be go about an appropriate
way of preserving and marking this site," Ms Bligh told reporters.

"I will be working with the RSL and other appropriate groups including Friends of the
Centaur to determine a way to mark this important gravesite."

A Japanese submarine torpedoed the Centaur without warning on May 14, 1943. Of the
332 people on board, 268 died.

Search director David Mearns said the Centaur was relatively intact although the hull
is 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 on Sunday morning.

Ms Bligh said Mr Mearns and his crew would return to the Centaur in January with submarines
and submersible cameras to film and document the site.

The Australian and Queensland governments jointly committed $4 million to the search
and officers from the Department of Defence and the Department of Premier and Cabinet
provided oversight and technical assistance to the project.

"In January the team will film the gravesite and 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."

John Argent said his father Jack, who was a paramedic on the Centaur and survived the
attack, rarely spoke about the tragedy.

He said his father told him the ship sank in three minutes because the torpedo directly
hit the "fuel bunker".

"I know that he went to his grave 26 years ago with no closure on it at all," Mr Argent said.

"It was the fact he had lost many mates in the blink of an eye.

"He would have felt a lot better with the fact they had found it and they could formally
recognise what went on."

Queensland Nurses Union secretary Gay Hawksworth said the 11 nurses who lost their
lives would be respectfully honoured and remembered.

"I know many nurses, on hearing this news, will take a minute to reflect on this tragedy
and the important role many thousands of their colleagues have played during wartime,"

Ms Hawksworth said.

AAP dac/mmr/apm

KEYWORD: CENTAUR WRAP (PIX AVAILABLE)

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