Portal:Military history of Australia/Units/November 11

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was an Australian hospital ship of World War II. Centaur (3,066 tons) was built for the Ocean Steamship Company (Blue Funnel Line) in Greenock, Scotland, in 1924. In early 1943 she was converted to a hospital ship. At 4.10am on 14 May 1943 Centaur was torpedoed and sunk by Japanese Navy submarine I-177 off Point Lookout, Queensland. 268 sailors and Australian military personnel died in the sinking. The ship was well illuminated at the time she was attacked and marked as a hospital ship. The act of sinking a ship so marked was considered to be a war crime.