Deep-sea explorers yesterday said they have located the wreck of a World War II Japanese transport ship, the SS Montevideo Maru, which was torpedoed off the Philippines, killing nearly 1,000 Australians aboard.
The ship — sunk on July 1, 1942, by a US submarine unaware it was carrying prisoners of war — was found at a depth of more than 4km, said the maritime archeology group Silentworld Foundation, which organized the mission with Dutch deep-sea survey firm Fugro.
The sinking of the Montevideo Maru was Australia’s worst-ever maritime disaster, killing an estimated 979 Australians, including at least 850 troops.
Photo: AFP / handout / Silentworld Foundation
Civilians from 13 other countries were also aboard, the foundation said, bringing the total number of prisoners killed to about 1,060.
They had been captured a few months earlier by Japanese forces in the fall of the coastal township of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.
“At long last, the resting place of the lost souls of the Montevideo Maru has been found,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Photo: AFP / handout / Silentworld Foundation
“Among the 1,060 prisoners on board were 850 Australian service members — their lives cut short,” he said on social media. “We hope today’s news brings a measure of comfort to loved ones who have kept a long vigil.”
After five years of planning, explorers began searching for the wreck on April 6 in the South China Sea, northwest of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon.
They made a positive sighting just 12 days later using high-tech equipment, including an autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with sonar.
“When we saw those images it was the moment of a lifetime, very exciting,” Captain Roger Turner, technical director of the expedition, said from aboard the Fugro Equator survey vessel.
The ship had split into two sections, with the bow and stern lying about 500m apart on the seabed, he said.
“We think that she was struck by two torpedoes. The first one was what caused her to sink. The second one actually blew off a part of the accommodation,” he said.
The wreckage is to remain undisturbed on the sea floor, where it lies at a greater depth than the Titanic, out of respect for the families of those who perished, the foundation said.
No artifacts or human remains are to be removed.
“We’re very conscious that it is a grave, it is a war grave for some 1,100 people — both our Allied military and civilians, but also the Japanese crew and guards,” Turner said. “It is being treated with appropriate respect.”
Andrea Williams, an Australian whose grandfather and great-uncle were civilian internees who perished on the ship, was also with the team that found it.
“It was very emotional, but it is also a very proud moment to have been able to find the wreck,” she said.
“The relatives have often said: ‘Will the Montevideo Maru ever be found?’” Williams said.
Locating the vessel was “hugely comforting” to the perished prisoners’ relatives, many of whom had contacted her after the news broke, she said.
Australia’s Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart said that finding the wreck had ended 81 years of uncertainty for the loved ones of those lost.
“A loss like this reaches down through the decades and reminds us all of the human cost of conflict,” he said.
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