Lasarettfartyget "The Centaur" hittad utanför Australien
Publicerad den 11 januari 2010 (Läst 3 727 gånger.)
The Centaur var ett australiensiskt lasarettfartyg som försvann i maj 1943.
Av de 332 personer som fanns ombord lyckades bara 64 personer räddas. Omständigheterna kring försvinnandet har i mer än 60 år varit oklara men nu har hon lokaliserats och filmats av David Mearns och hans team.
Vraket hittades på 2 kilometers djup den 20 december 2009 utanför Queenlands kust under en sökexpedition.
Originalartikeln från BBC:
An Australian World War II hospital ship, the Centaur, has been seen for the first time since it sank more than 60 years ago with a loss of 268 lives.
Images of the wreck, more than 2km (1.3 miles) below the sea, were captured by a remote-controlled underwater camera.
The ship''s location was discovered last month following a hi-tech search.
Australia says the ship, which went down in May 1943, was torpedoed by the Japanese. Japan says the circumstances surrounding its sinking are unclear.
The search team found the ship on 20 December off the Queensland coast, about 30 miles due east of the southern tip of Moreton Island.
Favourable conditions allowed the crew to send down a camera on a remotely-operated submersible vehicle over the weekend. Further dives are planned.
Search director David Mearns told AFP news agency he hoped the images would "hopefully end a 66-year quest for unanswered questions and bring comfort to many families across Australia and beyond".
"The wreck was found leaning over towards its port side at an angle of approximately 25 degrees and the bow is almost completely severed from the rest of the hull in the area where the single torpedo hit," he said.
"Although the wreck is very badly damaged, characteristic markings and features that identify the wreck as the Centaur were clearly visible."
Among the identifying features revealed by the camera were the large red crosses marked on each side of the bow.
Images also showed the number 47, which designated the vessel as Australian Hospital Ship 47.
Announcing the search for the ship last year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the loss of the Centaur had struck deeply at the heart of the nation and become a symbol of determination in the fight against a brutal enemy.
The Australians believe the ship was attacked without warning, the BBC''s Nick Bryant in Sydney reports, which the acting premier of Queensland, Paul Lucas, has called barbaric and senseless.
He has demanded an apology from the Japanese government, but a statement from the country''s embassy in Canberra said the details surrounding the sinking were inconclusive.
Of the 332 people on the ship, only 64 survived. Eleven of the 12 nurses on board died.
Diskuter på:
https://www.dykarna.nu/forum/torpederat-fartyg-320256/
Se video med text på:
http://www.dn.se/webbtv/nyheter/se-undervattensbilder-pa-torpederat-fartyg-1.1024760
Länk till originalartikeln på BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_8450000/8450511.stm
Taggar: Vrakfynd Förlisning Australien
