DVA - Publications - The Sinking of the Centaur

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At 4.10 am on Friday 14 May the Centaur was east of the Cape Moreton Light on Moreton Island, off the coast of Queensland.

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.

Sister Ellen Savage was asleep in her bunk when the Centaur collapsed around her:

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.

The Centaur had been hit by a torpedo fired from Submarine 1-177 commanded by Lieutenant Commander Nakagawa. This much was admitted in the official Japanese war history published in 1979. The sinking seems to have been Nakagawa's decision as commander and not the result of any official policy. Later in the Indian Ocean Nakagawa fired on the survivors from a British merchantman. For this, and other incidents, he was tried as a B Class war criminal and spent four years in prison. At his trial the sinking of the Centaur was not raised. Fellow officers praised Nakagawa as a professional sailor who would never knowingly have attacked a protected hospital ship. Nakagawa himself has never commented on the event. It is worth mentioning that eight months previously Japanese surface ships had trained their searchlights on the hospital ship Manunda at Milne Bay. The Manunda was similarly marked and illuminated to the Centaur and she was not fired on.