Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 524 by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Greenock, U.K. for the Ocean Steamship Co better known as the Blue Funnel Line. (Mgrs. Alfred Holt & Co.
05 June 1924 launched as the CENTAUR
Tonnage 3,066 grt, 1,800 net, dim. 315.7 x 48.2 x 21.5ft.
One 6-cyl. 4S C.S.A. diesel manufactured by Akt. Burmeister & Wain at Copenhagen, 355 nhp, one shaft, speed 12.5 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 50 first class and 22 second class.
15,000 cubic feet reefer space.
23 August 1924 registered.
September 1924 completed.
She was special built for the service between Australia and Singapore, via the Dutch East Indies.
Was fitted with a strengthened flat bottom, she was calling on many ports on the Western Australian coast which did have a large tidal range, and in many of this ports by the low tide the vessel was resting on the mud.
October 1924 she sailed from England with passengers and cargo bound for Singapore. After discharging she loaded cargo for Fremantle.
1938 She picked up the distress signal from the Japanese whaler KYO MARU and she towed the vessel to Geraldton, Australia.
27 April 1940 requisitioned for the Liner Division.
19 November 1941 she found the lifeboats with survivors of the German armed merchant cruiser KORMORAN, she towed the lifeboats with 62 German Navy crewmembers to Carnarvon.
New Years Day 1942 she sailed for the last time from Singapore, thereafter used in the coastal trade of Australia until January 1943.
17 April 1942 transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and in May 1942 to the Ship Management Division.
09 January 1943 selected as a hospital ship, and conversion work commenced at Willamstown.
01 March 1943 commissioned as an Australian Army Hospital Ship No. AHS 47.
12 March 1943 left from Williamstown bound for Sydney for completion of the conversion work.
Her hull was painted white with a green stripe along her port and starboard sides, together with large red cross symbols.
She was reported to the International Red Cross that she was a hospital vessel. She would be used as a hospital ship between the East Coast of Australia and New Guinea.
She sailed from Sydney after the medical staff joined the vessel under command of Captain George A. Murray on 21 March 1943 for Brisbane, at this port some alternations on the accommodation were carried out to make it more suitable for patients travelling in tropical conditions.
Then she made one coastal voyage from Townsville to Brisbane with sick and wounded servicemen. From Brisbane she sailed with Australian and American medical personnel as passengers to Port Moresby, after arrival at this port and disembarkation, she took on board wounded American and Australian soldiers, and sailed for Sydney were she arrived on the 8th May 1943.
On the 12th May she sailed from Sydney at 10.44 a.m. bound first for Cairns then to New Guinea with on board 332 persons, 75 merchant navy crew under which the Torres Strait pilot Captain Jack Salt, 64 men and women of the medical staff and 44 attached A.S.C. personnel. 149 Men 0f the 2/12 Field Ambulance for duty in New Guinea.
14 August at 04.10 a.m. was she struck by a torpedo and she sank within three minutes. At the time she was torpedoed she was fully illuminated as a hospital ship.
Of the 332 persons on board 268 were killed of the 11 female nurses on board only one survived (Ellen Savage).
Captain George A. Murray and the chief engineer lost also their lives. 30 crewmembers survived including the Torres Strait pilot. Of the medical staff 20 survived, of the 2/12 Field Ambulance only 12 survived and from the attached personnel only 3.
The survivors were very lucky the same day at 13.40 they were spotted by the crew of an Avro Anso aircraft from the 71 Squadron from the Lowood Airbase.
They were picked up by the American destroyer USS MUGFORD from a raft and landed at Brisbane.
Most probably the CENTAUR was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-177 under command of Hajime Nakagawa, and an official protest was given via the International Red Cross to Japan, in return counter protest were received.
After the war in 1948 Hajime Nakagawa was convicted as a war criminal on two charges, not related to the sinking of the CENTAUR. He was given eight years hard labour and he left Sugamo prison on 2 October 1954 after serving 6 years. He died on 27 May 1986 at the age of 84.
Australia 1993 $1.20 sg1400, scott1318
Source: Sea Breezes Vol. 75 January 2001. Centaur Memorial and Walk of Remembrance Unveiling Ceremony booklet of 14 May 1993. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHS_Centaur