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Rowan Callick and Andrew Fraser - The Australian

The Japanese government yesterday refused to take responsibility for the sinking of the Centaur, saying the circumstances surrounding the torpedoing of the Australian hospital ship on May 14, 1943, remained unclear. 

The Japanese embassy in Canberra said Tokyo had conducted its own inquiry into the wartime sinking that claimed 268 lives, and would wait for the outcome of the latest Australian investigation following the discovery of the Centaur's wreck 2059m below the surface on Sunday.

"The circumstances were not clear given that it occurred during the Second World War. We will see how the ongoing investigation by Australia unfolds," the embassy told The Australian.

The embassy would not elaborate on the inquiry into the sinking of the Centaur by submarine I-117, of which only 64 people survived, including Ellen Savage, awarded the second highest award for an act of bravery, the George Medal, for her actions as the only surviving nurse in tending to the wounded during the 36 hours the survivors spent in the water.

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By Andrew Fraser - The Australian

One of the greatest puzzles surrounding the torpedoing of the AHS Centaur in 1943 is likely to remain unsolved as the inside of the ship now 2km underwater is unlikely to be filmed. 

One of the great suspicions about the torpedoing of the ship is that the Japanese had received intelligence that the Centaur, which flew the flag of a hospital ship, was actually carrying armaments to troops in Papua New Guinea.

Waterside workers loading the ship in Sydney before it left for PNG were surprised to find that ambulance drivers of the 2/12th regiment, who arrived at the dock, were carrying a supply of rifles and ammunition.

Veterans Affairs records show that under the Geneva conventions it was possible to carry some weapons for personal protection, and 52 rifles and 2000 rounds of ammunition were loaded onto the ship.

Only 64 of the 332 people on board the ship survived after it was torpedoed in 1943. After several false starts the ship was finally found on Sunday by shipwreck hunter David Mearns 48km due east of the southern tip of Moreton Island at a depth of 2059m.

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By Amy Robinson - Sunday Gazette Mail
 

When I was in the third or fourth grade, I purchased Robert Ballard's "Exploring the Titanic: How the Greatest Ship Ever Lost Was Found" at a school book fair, thus beginning my interest in the Titanic. In fact, for several years, I wanted to be a marine archaeologist and go on expeditions like Ballard.

So when I found out that my family vacation this fall would include a day in Las Vegas, where the Luxor Hotel houses "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," I was very excited.

This was the chance to see in real life what I'd only seen in pictures.

Your experience starts before you even enter the exhibit hall, when the ticket taker hands you a "boarding pass." On the back, there is a profile of a Titanic passenger.

At the end of the exhibit is a memorial that lists all the ship's passengers. You can see what your fate is.

I was first-class passenger Margaret Brown -- aka The Unsinkable Molly Brown, so I knew from the start that I survived. We learned at the end that, of my family, my sister survived but my parents perished.

By Ben Dillaway - Gold coast

A Gold Coast doctor says he will only believe that searchers have found the sunken World War II hospital ship HMAS Centaur when he sees photographs of it lying on the ocean bed.

Monterey Keys GP Ross Evans says the historical facts do not support the vessel being as far offshore as where the searchers say they found it -- 66 years after it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine with the loss of 268 lives.

Premier Anna Bligh said shipwreck hunters found the vessel at 4.30am yesterday, 30 nautical miles due east from the southern tip of Moreton Island, 2059m below the surface.

None of the history supports it being that far offshore," said Dr Evans. "That means the survivors floated north against the current."

Dr Evans believes the Centaur sank within the trawling area to the northeast of Cape Moreton. The location was revealed to Dr Evans by a trawlerman who found an object 100m by 20m, about 90 fathoms (164.5m) below the surface many years ago. The Centaur was 96m with a 15m beam.

From ABC News

A search team has discovered the wreck of Australian wartime hospital ship Centaur. The WWII ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1943 and sank off the south-east Queensland coast.

Centaur search director David Mearns says the wreck location is about 30 nautical miles due east of the southern tip of Moreton Island at a depth of 2,059 metres.

Mr Mearns, who also led the searches for HMAS Sydney and Kormoran, says the discovery is quite an achievement.

"It's a great sense of relief and satisfaction," he said.

"Every time you find a shipwreck like this it's a little bit different and this was very, very hard compared to Sydney and Kormoran, whose finds were almost instantaneous.

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By Christen McCluney - DVIDS

Archaeologists with the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command are conducting underwater research to study wrecks, recover artifacts and preserve Navy history.

"A large percentage of the Navy's history resides in sunken shipwrecks and aircraft... literally scattered around the globe," Robert Neyland, head of the underwater archaeology branch at the command, explained during a Dec. 16 interview on the Pentagon Channel podcast "Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military."

He was joined by Alexis Catsambis and George Schwarz, who also are archaeologists at the branch.

The underwater archaeology branch is responsible for interpreting and applying science and archaeology on the Navy's sunken ship and aircraft wrecks.

The team is responsible for the management and study of more than 3,000 shipwrecks from the Continental Navy period to present time and more than 14,000 lost aircraft from the 1920s to the beginning of the Cold War, Neyland said.

The archaeologists also contribute to the understanding of the Navy's and the nation's underwater cultural heritage.

They travel all over the world to locate, assess and preserve wrecks that are property of the U.S. government, whether in U.S., international or foreign waters.

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From Brisbane Times

Shipwreck hunters are using a back-up sonar to search for the sunken hospital ship Centaur after a mishap on Friday. Search director David Mearns said the 'disturbing' loss of the SM30 sonar towfish has forced them to use reserve equipment.

They resumed their search for the Centaur with an AMS60 sonar which produces higher resolution images.

"In simple terms we will be able to "see" the targets better with the AMS60 and thus have a better idea whether the targets are man-made or geology," he has written on his blog.

"So while the loss of the SM30 was very unfortunate the AMS60 is the best option for this next phase of the search."

Mr Mearns said searchers had been able to eliminate possible `targets' and were focussing on an already identified target with similarities to the Centaur.

"The target has the right approximate shape and size for the wreck of Centaur and importantly we could now see an acoustic shadow behind the target whereas in the original image there was none," he wrote.

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By Peter Law - The Daily Echo

The final plans for Southampton's £15m Sea City Museum can today be exclusively unveiled. The museum, which will reshape the city's Civic Centre forever, is expected to attract 150,000 visitors a year.

The Daily Echo can reveal a dramatic cruise-liner inspired extension which will be the largest museum display area in Hampshire.

Known as "The Pavilion", Southampton City Council hopes it will bring international blockbuster exhibitions to the city for the first time.

The old magistrates' courts will be transformed into two permanent exhibitions, titled "Southampton's Titanic Story" and "Gateway to the World".

Southampton's Titanic story will be told through the eyes of the crew and community to which they belonged.

"We have taken time to research other commemorative displays and museums to understand how we could take a tragic subject matter and make it engaging, informative and respectful," Caroline Keppel-Palmer, from museum designers Urban Salon, said.

"Our focus is to focus on the human stories surrounding the disaster, rather than the event itself and we also focus on Southampton in 1912 and life in the merchant navy at the turn of the century."

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