AUSTRALIAN HOSPITAL SHIP CENTAUR

At 0410 hrs. 14 May 1943 off the coast of Brisbane, Queensland, Imperial Japanese Submarine I-177 torpedoed the Australian Hospital Ship CENTAUR.

The vessel sank in less than three minutes! The death toll was high. Of the 332 non-combatants on board, 268 died. Only one of twelve nursing sisters survived.

After drifting for 36 hours in shark infested waters 64 survivors were rescued by the USS Mugford (DD389).

Item:

Hal Markham of Springfield, Oregon was an 18 year old seaman aboard the USS MUGFORD in May 1943 when he helped in the rescue operation. He recently notified us that...

"...The man that I helped (onto the Mugford) was covered with oil and had a signal flag sunburned to his back, while cleaning him up which was quite painful to him I put his dog tags in my jacket. When I remembered and took them out he had been taken off the ship. I still have them. His name is ... on the tag...If I knew him to be still alive or some member of his family would like to have them back I would send them."

June 6th. 1997 -- Fred Millar.

Australian Veterans Affairs tracked down Fred Millar's file. Unfortunately he was killed in a train shunting accident at Tamworth, NSW in 1954. He left a widow - Una - but no offspring, his address at the time being Springridge NSW.

 

May 1998 - Fred Millar's dog tags returned to Australia after 55 years.

The youngest son of co-author Chris Milligan carried Fred Millar's WW2 dogtags back to Australia. They were delivered to co-author John Foley in Brisbane in July 1998. The RSL helped identify an appropriate final resting place for these Centaur relics.

 

More than half a century after the tragedy many questions, accusations and conjecture still surround the sinking of the Centaur. Since that fateful day the Centaur's innocence has been questioned. Some individuals were sure the military had compromised her hospital ship immunity by illicitly stuffing her holds with munitions and her wards with armed troops, possibly even commandoes. That a political/military coverup took place is undoubted by many people, even today.

Other mysteries enshroud the Centaur. Why was she close to the coast that night, instead of 110 miles offshore as ordered? Did she really hit a mine? Why did she sink so fast? Were spies involved in the sinking? Why did the submarine captain surface after the attack? Why did he so flagrantly violate the Geneva Conventions? Why did the Japanese deny culpability at the time, when under international pressure to do so, yet concede it a quarter of a century later? The questions go on and on.

Chris Milligan (who lost an uncle on the ship) combined fourteen years of international research with the local knowledge of Australian maritime historian and author John Foley. This Canadian/Australian team attempts to solve the last great Australian maritime mystery of WW2, and exorcise all of the Centaur ghosts in Australian Hospital Ship CENTAUR: The Myth of Immunity so that the Centaur will be remembered for what she was; a lady of mercy; a speck of sanity on a sea of insane times.

A Brief Outline - on the loss of the Centaur

Complete List - of all CENTAUR Personnel - 14 May 1943

Australian and British Archives - concerning the Centaur - a selection

Art work by Stephen S. Bloomer, Pointe Claire, QC, CANADA.

Chris Milligan,Contact via E-mail

McGill University, Faculty of Education, Dept. of Educational Studies, 3700 Mctavish St., Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y2, CANADA. (514) 398-6746 ext. 2475 FAX (514) 398-4529.

John Foley, Contact via E-mail

Nairana Publications, 6A Doncaster Street, Hendra, QLD. 4011. Australia. (International FAX. 61-7-32683311)

Site last modified May 30th. 1998