Our own MSC link with the sinking and discovery of the Montevideo Maru
Br Clifford Brennan and Fr David McCullagh were among the 1054 Australians who died in this disaster.
We have a gravestone at St Mary’s Towers, but no grave. Now we know where it is.
Here are some details from Jim Littleton’s first book on Deceased MSC. He notes that, three years after the sinking with the confirmation of their deaths, a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated for them at OLSH Randwick, December 5th, 1945
Clifford Brennan,
born 1916, professed October 17th, 1933. Trained as a cook by Sister Rita RSJ, he was appointed to Downlands, 1934-1936, 1937 at Kensington, 1938, to Douglas Park. In 1941 he went to Eastern Papua with the arrangement that he spent a year or more Vunapope,, New Britain, working with the German Brothers in the various workshops. He was captured, interned, sent on the Montevideo Maru.
David McCullagh,
born 1911, professed 2nd February, 1932, ordained 30th of November, 1937. Born at Kalgoorlie, educated by the Christian Brothers there and, later, at St Patrick’s College, Ballarat. After ordination, he went to Hammond Island, transferred to New Britain in 1941. As we know, Father Ted Harris stayed and was killed. The others refused to escape, remaining with the local people, and then transferred on to the Montevideo Maru.
Some details from Wikipedia:
Montevideo Maru was a Japanese auxiliary ship during World War II. It was sunk by the American submarine USS Sturgeon on 1 July 1942, drowning 1,054 Australians aboard—prisoners of war and civilians who were being transported from Rabaul to Hainan. The sinking is considered the worst maritime disaster in Australia's history.
She was proceeding without escort to the Chinese island of Hainan, when she was sighted by the American submarine USS Sturgeon near the northern Philippine coast on 30 June 1942.
Sturgeon pursued, but was unable to fire, as the target was travelling at 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph). Montevideo Maru slowed to about 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) at midnight, to facilitate an expected rendezvous with an escort of two destroyers. Unaware that the ship was carrying Allied prisoners of war and civilians, Sturgeon fired four torpedoes at Montevideo Maru before dawn on 1 July 1942. At least one torpedo hit, causing the vessel to take on water and sink 11 minutes later. Australians in the water sang "Auld Lang Syne" to their trapped comrades as the ship sank beneath the waves.
There were more POWs in the water than crew members. The POWs were holding pieces of wood and using bigger pieces as rafts. They were in groups of 20 to 30 people, probably 100 people in all. They were singing songs. I was particularly impressed when they began singing Auld Lang Syne as a tribute to their dead colleagues. Watching that, I learnt that Australians have big hearts.
— Eyewitness Yoshiaki Yamaji, interviewed October 2003.
- 22 Salvation Army bandsmen, the majority being members of the Brunswick Citadel band. The bandsmen had enlisted together and comprised the majority of the band of the 2/22nd Battalion.
- In 2012, the Japanese government handed over thousands of POW documents to the Australian government. The Montevideo Maru's manifest, which contained the names of all the Australians on board, was among them. The translation of the manifest was released in June 2012, confirming a total of 1,054 Australians, of which 845 were from Lark Force. The new translation corrected a longstanding historical error in the number of civilians who went down with the ship. There were 209, not 208 as previously thought. This is not an additional casualty. Rather, the historical number was simply inaccurate.
2023 - SS Montevideo Maru was found after 12 days of searching in the South China Sea, off the coast of Luzon, by a team led by not-for-profit Silentworld Foundation, deep-sea survey specialists Fugro and supported by the Department of Defence.
The wreckage will not be disturbed, and no human remains or artefacts will be removed. The site, which sits deeper than the wreck of the Titanic, will be recorded for research purposes.
