DVA - Publications - The Sinking of the Centaur

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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 example 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. 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.

On the afternoon of Saturday 15 May, 32 hours after the Centaur had slipped to the bottom, the Naval Officer in Charge Brisbane, Captain E P Thomas, received a message from the USS Mugford. The American destroyer was picking up survivors from the hospital ship Centaur 40 miles east of Cape Moreton. It was the first Australia knew of the nation's worst loss from submarine attack during the war.

So quickly had the Centaur sunk that no SOS message was sent. The Mugford had been escorting the British steamer Sussex clear of Australian coastal waters when a lookout spotted an object ahead in the water. An RAAF Avro-Anson providing air cover dived on the object and then headed back towards the destroyer signalling 'Rescue survivors in water ahead'.

Of the 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.