The Centaur, 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship, was a motor passenger ship converted in early 1943 for use as a hospital ship. In November 1941 it had rescued survivors of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran after it had sunk and been sunk by HMAS Sydney.
On 12, May 1943 the Centaur sailed unescorted from Sydney at 0945 hours carrying her crew and normal staff as well as stores and equipment of the 2/12th Field Ambulance but no patients. It was sunk without warning by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine on 14 May 1943 at approximately 0400 hours, its position being approximately 27’17’ S, 153°58′ E about 50 miles east north-east of Brisbane.
Of the 332 persons on board, only 64 survived. These survivors spent 35 hours on rafts before being rescued. Sister Ellen Savage, the only one of twelve nursing sisters on board to survive, though injured herself, gave great help to the other survivors and was awarded the George Medal for this work.
World War II Stories from Brisbane’s South West
The sinking of the Centaur sent shockwaves through wartime Brisbane, then the principal Allied command centre in the South West Pacific. Camp Columbia at Wacol had become one of the region’s major Allied military complexes, while hospitals throughout south-east Queensland were receiving wounded servicemen evacuated from New Guinea. The loss of a clearly marked Australian hospital ship highlighted the vulnerability of Allied medical services and the vital role that Brisbane played as a centre for military command, logistics and medical support across the South West Pacific.