ANZAC Eve 2009 Commemoration of Centaur

David Mearns who found HMAS Sydney is keen to find the wreck of the Australian hospital ship Centaur before ANZAC Eve 2009.

David told us that he would like to find the Centaur before Port Adelaide’s major ANZAC event Light on the Water on April 24 commemorates her sinking.

Adelaide school students will make 3000 cardboard candle-lit lifeboats that will float on the Port River to honour those where lost when the Centaur was torpedoed and sunk off Queensland in 1943.

In an interview with Sydney Morning Herald writer Jonathan Dart, David said the task was feasible so long as there was funding.

David Mearns, the world-renowned shipwreck hunter said he has conducted preliminary research on the Centaur and said it would be easier to find than the Sydney and the Kormoran.

He said the only barriers to finding the Centaur were a lack of money and political will.

"On the basis of what I've seen of her, I believe she's findable," he said.

"The information, even at this preliminary stage, is better than what I had to deal with in locating … Kormoran and Sydney.

"I think the water depth isn't a barrier; I don't think there are any environmental problems.

But how it's organised, who funds it - those are all big questions."

Nurses also lost their lives

In the hall of memory at the Australian War Memorial, the large mosaic commemorating the Australian service women of World War II includes the figure of a Greek mythological beast sinking into the sea.

Some say it is the Centaur.

It is the only reference in the hall to a specific event in any of the wars in which Australians have fought.

It reminds us that, like soldiers, sailors, airmen and merchant seamen, in war Australian nurses also lost their lives.

This ship symbolises the courage of Australian women in war and reminds us of all Australians who served in war and have no graves but the sea.

Sister Ellen Savage was asleep in her bunk when the Centaur collapsed around her:

Merle Morton and myself were awakened by two terrific explosions and practically thrown out of bed.

I registered mentally that it was a torpedo explosion.

In that instant the ship was in flames ... we ran into Colonel Manson, our commanding officer, in full dress even to his cap and 'Mae West' life jacket, who kindly said 'That's right girlies, jump for it now.'

The first words I spoke was to say 'Will I have time to go back for my great-coat?' as we were only in our pyjamas.

He said 'No' and with that climbed the deck and jumped and I followed, the ship was commencing to go down. It all happened in three minutes.

The suction of the sinking Centaur dragged Sister Savage down into a whirlpool of moving metal and wood.

Here her ribs, nose and palate were broken, her eardrums perforated and she sustained multiple bruises. Then she was propelled to the surface in the middle of an oil slick.

Sister Savage found her way to a raft that was part of the Centaur's wheelhouse.

During the 36 hours on this makeshift raft, Sister Savage gave whatever medical care she could to survivors despite being badly injured herself.

Sister Savage was the only nurse to survive. For her courage and inspiring behaviour during this period Sister Savage was awarded the George Medal.

The 332 people aboard the Centaur's last voyage had ranged in age from 15 to 67.

Most were Australian, with some English, Scots, and individuals from Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Canada.

Among those aboard were at least eight sets of brothers, including one set of three, and all perished.

There were also the usual stories of good luck and bad luck.

People who should have been aboard but were not, and others who were not supposed to be on board that fateful voyage but joined the ship at the last minute.

When the last survivor had been rescued from the water and the final tally was done, there were only 64 people of the original 332 alive.

Group
Dead Saved Total
Merchant crew (civilian sailors who signed on for six months at a time)
45 30 75
Ship's medical staff (Members of the Australian Army, males in the Medical Corps, females in the Nursing Service)
44 20 64
2/12th Field Ambulance
138 11 149
Attached Australian Army Service Corps
41 3 44

Why did the crew and the medical staff have the lowest rate of deaths?

Largely it was because of the grim geography of death.

The crew knew the ship well, and were quartered at the front and rear ends and below decks.

Some were on duty, or had only recently come off duty and were not fully asleep.

The medical staffs were also either forward or aft, and on the lower decks.

The Field Ambulance and attached Service Corps soldiers were mainly in the middle hospital ward area, right where the torpedo hit.

Story and photos the Centaur and Sister Ellen Savage in a hospital bed ashore from the Australian War Memorial
www.awm.gov.au/

Freedom of the city of Port Adelaide

On Australia's first ever Merchant Navy Day on September 3, Port Adelaide become the first port in the world to grant the Freedom of the City to the Merchant Navy.

The South Australian Governor, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR and Mrs Liz Scarce were special guests at the ceremony.

Port Adelaide's unique ceremony took place after a Community March and Commemoration to celebrate Merchant Navy Day.

The event came out of the Rudd Labour Government's electoral promise to give long overdue recognition to the Merchant Navy's vital role in the very existence of Australia by proclaiming September 3 as annual national Merchant Navy Day.

The Port Adelaide event was strongly supported by the Federal Minister for Veterans Affairs, Alan Griffin MP, and local MHR, Mark Butler, MP.

In peacetime all of Australia's vital needs from oil imports to commodities exports are transported by the Merchant Navy and in wartime its troops and military supplies.

The first man killed in World War One was a merchant seaman from the crew of a brigantine and in World War Two merchant seamen were the first and last men killed.

Merchant Navy and Maritime Union of Australia veterans and other serving and former merchant seamen and waterside workers marched with RSL veterans and the Merchant Navy Association, Vindicatrix Association, South Australian Maritime Museum, National Trust and Mt Gambier residents linked with the Admella 150 Festival.

The march along Queens Wharf on the Port River finished at The Navigator memorial which tells the story of South Australia's worst ever shipwreck, the sinking of the SS Admella 149 years ago.

Spectators included teachers and students from local schools and many local families with a seafaring history.

South Australia's new Minister For Veterans Affairs, Michael Atkinson, City of Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor, Gary Johanson, and International Transport Federation Director, Dean Summers,representing the Maritime Union of Australia, addressed the marchers, followed by a short service by new Port Chaplain, Robin Trebilcock.

One of Australia's best piper Don Macauley played Abide With Me.

The world renowned SA Pipes and Drums band led the march with a contingent from RAN Headquarters South Australia paying tribute to its sister service.

September 3 was also Battle for Australia Day in which the RAN and Merchant Navy played a vital role throughout the Pacific and military veterans also took part in the Port Adelaide march.

At 4 pm the Mayor of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Gary Johanson, presented a large symbolic key and charter to former merchant seaman and Maritime Museum volunteer Keith Ridgeway and the crew of the veteran tug Yelta at a Civic Centre reception attended by 60 guests.

The key and the charter will go on display in the Port Adelaide Seafarers Centre and become part of the port's rich maritime history.

Seafaring family from a century ago

When City of Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Gary Johannson decided to grant Freedom of the City to the Merchant Navy on September 3, he recalled his grandfather Fredrick Johannson and his aunt Adelaide Johannson.

Frederick was a merchant seaman who joined the Belfast registered vessel Carmmoney in Gothenberg, signed off in Port Lincoln in 1909 and settled in South Australia.

Adelaide Johansson signed on as a Stewardess at Port Victoria in the merchant vessel SS Viking just after World War Two.

She became a Cape Horner on the Viking, which was the last windjammer to leave Australia.

Frederick and Adelaide would have been impressed if they had known that Port Adelaide would become the first port in the world to grant the Merchant Navy this honour on Australia’s first ever Merchant Navy Day.

Australia's first annual Merchant Navy Day will be celebrated with a commemorative
march and the Freedom of the City ceremony on September 3.

Minister's Merchant Navy Day Message

A MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER FOR VETERANS AFFAIRS FOR MERCHANT NAVY DAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2008

The service and sacrifice of Australia’s merchant mariners during wartime has been formally recognised with the Proclamation by the Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffrey AC CVO MC (Retired), that 3 September each year will be a day of national observance known as Merchant Navy Day.

From this year, Merchant Navy Day will be an occasion to give merchant mariners the prominence in Australia’s wartime history they deserve.

The role of Australian’s merchant mariners was vital and often dangerous, evacuating civilians from threatened areas and transporting supplies and personnel to and between areas of conflict.

Thousands of Australian merchant mariners have served during wartime on Australian, Commonwealth and Allied ships. Australian and Commonwealth memorials commemorate 435 Australians who lost their lives serving in the Merchant Navy.

It is important that Australians preserve the memory and history of all our service personnel.

Merchant Navy Day will serve to remind current and future generations that we owe an enormous debt to the merchant mariners whose service helped to secure the freedoms we now enjoy.

As Australia marks the first observance of Merchant Navy Day, all merchant mariners should be proud of their contribution to our nation.

Alan Griffin

Our photos show: Construction work on Stage Two of Newport Quays. See more at:
www.newportquays.com.au/

Merchant Navy Day flags, sponsored by the multi million dollar Port Riverfront residential development Newport Quays, flying on 28 flagpoles in Port Adelaide.

Minister Griffin and popular local MP Mark Butler who played an important role in the organising of of the first ever Merchant Navy Day March in Port Adelaide at 11 am on Wednesday September 3.

SS Admella and Merchant Navy Day

One of the worst shipwrecks ever in South Australian waters will be a central theme of Australia’s first ever Merchant Navy Day in Port Adelaide.

The Merchant Navy Day March along Queens wharf will finish at The Navigator Memorial, which commemorates the tragic loss of the SS Admella 149 years ago.

New Port Chaplain Robin Trebilcock will conduct a short service there and our photo
shows Keith Ridgeway from the South Australian Maritime Museum with a restorer getting
the memorial ready for September 3.

Participating in the march that will begin near Birkenhead Bridge at 11 am on September 3 will be some of the 160 people representing 44 different survivors, victims and rescuers.

All 160 are involved in "Admella 150 Festival " which will be held from Thursday August 6 to Sunday August 16, 2009.

The Navigator memorial in St Vincent Street, Port Adelaide tells the story of her destruction on Carpenter Rocks, 20 miles west of Cape Northumberland, South Australia on August 6, 1859.

The Land Management Corporation is selecting a new waterfront site for the memorial as the building behind it is being developed.

It is hoped that the move can co-incide with the the August 2009 "Admella 150 Festival".

The SS Admella was a steam ship of 209 tons (212 tonnes) also fitted with three masts and sails. Her length was 55.6 metres. She left Port Adelaide at 5.30am on Friday August 5, 1859 bound for Melbourne.

Early the following morning she ran onto Carpenter Rocks that lie a few kilometres offshore of South Australia, almost due South of the current town of Millicent.

Over the next 8 days, 89 people lost their lives but miraculously, about 24 survived, most of them hanging onto the wreck in raging winter seas for that 8-day period. There was little food and virtually no water and many acts of heroism. Learn more about the Admella story.

Many ships were wrecked along this part of the Australian coast, both before and after the wreck of the Admella, but this wreck is arguably the most famous.

It is this fame that has brought together the local Councils of the areas most impacted by the wreck, to create a series of events to mark the 150th anniversary in 2009.

Those Councils are the District Council of Grant, which includes Carpenter Rocks and Port MacDonnell, the Glenelg Shire Council, which includes the City of Portland in Victoria, the City of Mount Gambier, the Wattle Range Council, and the Robe District Council.

For more information: http://www.admella.org.au/

Minister launches Merchant Navy Day

Federal Minister for Veterans Affairs, the Hon Alan Griffin MP made a special visit to Port Adelaide at 4 pm on Friday July 4 to unveil a four metres by two metres Merchant Navy Day banner on the Lighthouse in Black Diamond Square.

Minister Griffin officially announced September 3 as Merchant Navy Day to honour an election promise by the Rudd Government.

Merchant seamen had petitioned Government for more than three years and the Governor General Governor-General, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC
finally signed the official declaration two days before the Minister’s visit.

Minister Griffin revealed that he came from a merchant navy family so he had a special link with Australian seamen.

He spoke about the vital role of the merchant navy in both wartime and peace and in particular in defending Australia in World War Two.

The banner promotes the Port Adelaide Community Commemorative March to celebrateAustralia’s first ever annual Merchant Navy Day March scheduled for September 3.

A team of local veteran merchant seamen, the Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL and the Seafarers Memorial Committee has been organizing the Port march.

South Australia’s Deputy Premier and Treasurer, Kevin Foley, Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor, Gary Johanson, Commander Craig Pritchard RAN MHR Mark Butler MP, former MHR Rod Sawford, Ian Kelly Deputy Commissioner SA Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Affairs SA staff, MUA Chief Jamie Newlyn and a group of merchant navy veterans greeted the Minister.

After the Minister unveiled the banner, Kevin Jones, Director of the South Australian Maritime Museum hosted drinks aboard the veteran tug Yelta.

The Port Adelaide March has taken on another dimension with the recent declaration of an annual Battle for Australia Day on the first Wednesday in September, which this year coincides with Merchant Navy Day.

The MUA is a major participant in Merchant Navy Day and we all recall that 60 wharfies and seafarers were killed on the Fort Hill wharf in a single bombing raid in Darwin harbour and that Port Adelaide would eventually have been on the hit list.

The march will start at Fishermen’s Wharf Markets at 11 am on September 3 and go along the wharf to the back of the old Ports Building.

Serving and former merchant seamen, their families, the Maritime Union of Australia and other maritime groups will walk behind a Royal Australian Navy contingent.

The march will conclude with a special commemoration at the superb Navigator memorial to Lost Seafarers by local sculptor Karen Genoff.

New Port Adelaide Chaplain Rev Roger Trebilcock will conduct a short service and a light lunch will be served.

This sculpture is to be incorporated in a new waterfront Seafarers Memorial for Port Adelaide.

Karen Genoff is working with the Land Management Corporation in the projected removal, transport and placement of this sculpture at a waterfront site to be selected.

Port Adelaide MHR Mark Butler MP has been working on the memorial project with a Port Adelaide Seafarers Memorial Community Committee.

The Committee includes representatives from the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, Merchant Navy Association SA, Vindicatrix Association SA, the Land Management Corporation, the Port Centre Co-ordination Group, the South Australian Maritime Museum, Maritime Union of Australia, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, National Trust Port Adelaide and Port Adelaide Historical Society.

Our photos show:

Left to right: Kevin Jones, Director of the South Australian Maritime Museum, Jamie Newlyn, Maritime Union of Australia, Rod Sawford, former MHR Port Adelaide, Kevin Foley, Deputy Premier and Treasurer and member for Port Adelaide, Alan Griffin MP, Minister for Veterans Affairs, Gary Johanson, Mayor of Port Adelaide and Mark Butler MP, MHR for Port Adelaide.

Minister Griffin relaxes with other guests aboard the veteran steam tug Yelta on the Port River with the bridges in the background. Port River dolphins also paid a visit to starboard side of the Yelta to the delight of those on board.

Minister's National Announcement on:
http://www.alp.org.au/media/0708/msva040.php



Comments

Merchant Navy Day in Port Adelaide

With its rich maritime history, it is fitting that Port Adelaide will celebrate Australia’s first national Merchant Navy Day on Wednesday September 3 in nautical style.

All local families with links to the sea are being invited to join the Merchant Navy March leaving the Seafarers Centre at 11 am that day to commemorate all seafarers who have served in war and peace.

The march will go through Black Diamond Square and along the wharf to the old Ports Building.

Serving and former merchant seamen, their families and representatives from other maritime groups including the Maritime Union of Australia will head the March.

The march will conclude with a special commemoration at the superb Navigator memorial to Lost Seafarers by local sculptor Karen Genoff.

Karen has many fine works of art in public locations around Australia.

In granite, lyten steel, breakwater rocks and timber, the Navigator memorial stands outside the old Ports building.

It was unveiled in 1992 for the SA Department of Marine and Harbours Port Adelaide.

This sculpture is to be incorporated in a new waterfront Seafarers Memorial for Port Adelaide.

Karen Genoff is working with the Land Management Corporation in the removal, transport and placement of this sculpture at a waterfront site to be selected.

Our photos show:

Karen with the Land Management Corporation’s Phil Jones discussing plans for the September 3 commemoration outside the old Ports building.

The plaque that tells the story behind the sculpture

Popular new Port Adelaide MHR Mark Butler MP (left) has been working on the memorial project with a Port Adelaide Seafarers Memorial Community Committee. As the Federal Minister for Veterans Affairs, the Hon Alan Griffin MP (right), has said, the unsung stories of Australian and Allied merchant mariners, particularly during World War II, are a unique part of Australia’s wartime and maritime heritage.

It includes representatives from the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Merchant Navy Association SA, Vindicatrix Association SA, the Port Centre Co-ordination Group, the South Australian Maritime Museum, Maritime Union of Australia, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, National Trust Port Adelaide and Port Adelaide Historical Society.

The declaration of Merchant Navy Day by the Governor General is Australia’s contribution to an international campaign.

The United Kingdom and Canada also commemorate Merchant Navy Day on September 3.

Merchant Navy Day provides due recognition of the service of the merchant navy in securing the Australian homeland and our region in times of war and emergency.

Extracts below from the Australian Merchant Navy website.

Australia has used merchant ships to despatch its colonial or national armed forces personnel to war-fighting or peacekeeping operations since 1885, when a New South Wales contingent went to the Sudan.

Forces from several colonies were transported to the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902.

Post-Federation Australian forces deployed to the Boxer Rebellion 1900-1901 and to the First World War (“The Great War”) 1914-1918.

By far, Australia’s largest commitment of armed forces was to the Second World War 1939-1945, one in which, besides other menaces, the Japanese threat to Australia itself was very real.

It was in the “Battle for Australia” period of the Second World War that the nation’s merchant mariners collectively served their most extensive and dramatic role.

It was a role involving great heroism and sacrifice, to date largely unrecorded, unrecognised and unsung.

Merchant Seamen were not provided with uniforms, leave (paid or otherwise), medical or pension benefits.

They “signed on” to a ship voyage-by-voyage, their employment lasting until return to home port, this possibly being a year or so later.

All remuneration ceased when the seaman’s ship was sunk, with survivors being classified “Destitute British Subjects” (“D.B.S.”) and placed in the care of a wartime charitable institution.

Following numerous sinkings off the Australian coast during 1942, the Regulations were changed to allow for a seaman’s pay to continue until return to home port.