Wreck of WWII-Era Ship, aboard which Nearly 1,000 Australians Died, Found

Deep-sea explorers stated Saturday they’d situated the wreck of a World War II Japanese transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, which was torpedoed off the Philippines killing almost 1,000 Australians aboard.

The ship — sunk on July 1, 1942, by a US submarine whose crew didn’t realise it carried prisoners of conflict — was discovered at a depth of greater than 4 kilometres (2.5 miles), stated the maritime archaeology group Silentworld Foundation, which organised the mission.

The sinking of the Montevideo Maru was Australia’s worst-ever maritime catastrophe, killing an estimated 979 Australian residents together with at the very least 850 troops.

Civilians from 13 different nations had been additionally aboard, the muse stated, bringing the entire quantity of prisoners killed to about 1,060.

They had been captured a number of months earlier by Japanese forces within the fall of the coastal township of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.

“At lengthy final, the resting place of the misplaced souls of the Montevideo Maru has been discovered,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated.

“Among the 1,060 prisoners on board were 850 Australian service members –- their lives cut short,” he stated on social media.

“We hope right this moment’s information brings a measure of consolation to family members who’ve saved a protracted 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.

The wreckage will remain undisturbed on the seabed, where it lies at a greater depth than the Titanic, out of respect for the families of those who perished, the foundation said. No artefacts or human remains are to be removed.

‘Terrible chapter’

“The discovery of the Montevideo Maru closes a terrible chapter in Australian military and maritime history,” stated John Mullen, director of Silentworld, which carried out the hunt with Dutch deep sea survey agency Fugro together with assist from the Australian navy.

“Families waited for years for information of their lacking family members earlier than studying of the tragic consequence of the sinking,” Mullen said.

“Some never fully came to accept that their loved ones were among the victims.”

Andrea Williams, an Australian whose grandfather and great-uncle had been civilian internees who perished on the ship, was half of the mission that discovered the vessel.

She stated it was an “terribly momentous day” for Australians connected with the disaster.

“I could never understand why it was not a more powerful part of our Australian WWII history,” Williams stated in an announcement.

Australia’s chief of military, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, stated discovering the wreck had ended 81 years of uncertainty for the family members of these misplaced.

“A loss like this reaches down by way of the many years and reminds us all of the human value of battle,” he said.

Others who perished aboard the Montevideo Maru included 33 crew from the Norwegian freighter the Herstein and about 20 Japanese guards and crew, the foundation said.

Other countries affected by the sinking included Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Sweden and the United States, it said.

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