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| Today's Armstrong THE LAMP OF FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1943, May 20). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 3. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11344703 |
The Centaur incident is a significant event in Australian military history, it was a focus of rage and rallying call for people to enlist with a large poster drive entitled 'Avenge the Nurses'.
The tragedy was also inspiration for increased support to nurses and nurse training, the creation of Centaur House being but one example. The history of Centaur House was a focus for a 2015 Oxley Fellowship at SLQ. It is worth digging into. Funding for nurses was probably the first raffle in which you could win a house in Queensland. There is still a Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses to support nurses studying.
Much is written, it is deeply memorialised (enter 'Centaur' on https://monumentaustralia.org.au/). Indeed much that I may have hoped to say has been said already. This then I publish, as an ANZAC tradition for myself. A dive into Trove to emerge with a story which does what ANZAC Day should do ... make us remember those we should not forget and remind us of the cruelty of war.
INTERVIEW WITH HEROIC NURSING SISTER
Sister Savage, who is pretty, with a dimpled smile and short, curly brown hair worn back from her forehead, was interviewed in a military hospital. She displayed a black eye and cuts on her nose and lip. Sister Savage, who wears a religious medal attached to her identity disc, said that she kept her Rosary beads beside her bed, and snatched them up when she was awakened by the explosion. "My first thought was to say a prayer that we might be saved, and that my friends might be saved, too, she said.
"UP ON DECK, SAVAGE" '
With her cabin-mate, she rushed to the porthole, looked out, and saw the ship ablaze. They raced for their lifebelts. Her best friend, Sister King, ran in from the next cabin, and called out, "Up on deck, Savage."
Sister Savage said that she had been in the A.I.F. for two years this month and while on the hospital ship Oranje, between Australia and the Middle East, had often wondered what she would do if the ship were sunk, but, contrary to her expectations, she did not panic. She and Sister King had planned to keep together. Sister King was a poor swimmer, but she herself was a good one, and she had promised to look after her.
In the confusion on deck she lost Sister King. She and her cabin-mate jumped overboard together, but her mate was struck by a piece of falling timber, and apparently killed. She managed to clamber on the floating roof of a chart house with a badly burned man, and she gave him what help she could. They worked their way towards two large rafts, where there were other survivors, by paddling with their hands.
These survivors were members of the crew and of the medical personnel. She took charge of the food and water, and rationed them on a four days' basis.
DOCTOR'S GRAPHIC STORY
Lieutenant-Colonel Outridge, who was also interviewed in a military hospital, paid a warm tribute to Sister Savage. "She was wonderful," he said "She must have been in great pain all the time, but she never said a word about it. Her leadership was a great factor in keeping up the morale of her party."
"There could have been no possible doubt about the Identity of the Centaur as a hospital ship," said Lieutenant-Colonel Outridge. "She was lit up to glory, and there were big lights fore and aft. It was a bright, starry night, and the whole ship, including the Red Crosses on the sides, had been repainted just before she sailed. "It must have been clear from miles away that she was a hospital ship."
Lieutenant-Colonel Outridge was swathed in bandages covering his burns. He said that he was asleep when the torpedo struck and awoke dazed. The explosion occurred only 60 feet from his berth When he opened his eyes the cabin was a mass of flame. Even the life-belts on the walls were on fire.
He stepped out into a swirl of water in the tween decks, and was washed along to the forward companionway. The ship was sinking rapidly, and in the deepening water his legs became entangled in a rope. He had great difficulty in freeing himself to make his way on deck.
There he again became entangled in cordage from a mass of broken booms and derricks, but managed to kick himself free. There was then only 30 feet of the deck showing above water, and he jumped overboard and struck out through the oil, which clogged his nostrils and made his eyes smart. A raft swept up to him on the swell. He climbed aboard, and turned to look at the ship, but she had gone.
Lieutenant-Colonel Outridge said he was in silk pyjamas, and he tore off the legs of them to dress his burns. A complete medical kit was picked up from the water by men on one of the rafts, and this enabled something to be done for those within reach.
The supply of provisions on one raft was two gallons of water, 2,000 malted milk tablets, a small tin of chocolate tablets, prunes, raisins, and meat extract. Not knowing how long they would be afloat, they rationed. A typical meal was a lick of meat extract, a milk tablet, two prunes, and a mouthful of water.
CREW'S GENEROSITY
The crew of the rescue ship subscribed £237/12/, enabling each survivor to receive £3/14/3.
He paid a tribute to the crew of the rescue ship, who fed, clothed, and gave medical care to the survivors. "They were magnificent," he said. "Their medical officer had a very hard task to handle so many, but he did a wonderful job, and all the survivors are most grateful."
One of the must vivid stories of the ordeal afloat was told by John Stutter, officers' steward, of Hay Street, Perth, who said that he was too busy fighting for his life to feel frightened. He somehow fought clear of the suction of the sinking ship, and made for a raft. "I spent the whole time on the raft with a man who was so terribly burned that he was practically unrecognisable," he continued. "He was in agony, dying by inches, and his screams were torture to us because we could do nothing for him. When he died it was a merciful release.
"Stan. Morgan, donkeyman, of Melbourne. Jim Waterson, assistant storeman, of Bassendean, Western Australia, with myself and two others gave him him as reverent a burial as we could, all of us saying a little prayer to ourselves as we swung him out on the swell. His body drifted away in the dawn, gradually sinking, while the rain pattered down on the sea."
DASH THROUGH FLAME
Captain R. M Salt, of Chaleyer Street, Dover Heights, Sydney, a Torres Strait pilot aboard the ship, said that the whole ship was ablaze when he made the deck, so he tipped a bucket of water over his head, wrapped a blanket round him, and made a dash through a wall of flame for the boat-deck. "It was too late, so I went over the side." he said.
Captain Salt was aboard a vessel when it was sunk by Japanese shellfire in Milne Bay last year, and was badly burned on the arms, body, and head. "But," he said, "I have been 50 years at sea, and as soon as I am right I shall be back in a ship again."
James A. Rawlings, cook, of North Sydney, said that his eyes were badly affected by the oil on the water. He had tried to get a raft free, but the rope was caught, and as the ship was going, he dived in.
When Frank Martin, ship's cook, of Melbourne, was rescued, he was alone on a plank. He had been there ever since the ship was sunk. His comrades said they could not understand how he survived, because he was "such a little fellow." They praised his courage and endurance.
Owen Christensen, of Melbourne, also held on to a plank in the water for 34 hours before being rescued. "In the darkness I heard a man call for help," he said. "I called back, and we made for each other, but he, too, had only a plank. After a while, he seemed to lose his reason. He swam away, looking for something to drink, and I did not see him again."
It is recalled that the hospital ship Manunda was struck by bombs at Darwin during a Japanese raid, but at Milne Bay, on a later occasion, Japanese warships which attacked shipping and shore installations passed almost alongside a hospital ship, but did not attack it.
Source:
INTERVIEW WITH HEROIC NURSING SISTER (1943, May 19). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17849085
