A Japanese ship torpedoed during World War II,
killing more than 1,000 prisoners
, most of them Australians, has been found
in deep water off the Philippines
, the Silentworld marine archeology foundation reported.
The Montevideo Maru ship was found last Tuesday more than 4,000 meters deep in the South China Sea, 110 kilometers from the Philippine island of Luzon, Silentworld said.
The discovery of the ship, sunk on July 1, 1942 by
a US submarine whose crew was unaware they were carrying prisoners of war
, occurred after 12 days of searching with a sonar-enabled underwater drone.
"We believe it was hit by two torpedoes," Captain Roger Turner, the expedition's technical director, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
The ship broke in two, with the bow and stern lying about 500 meters from each other on the seabed, the expert added.
An image of the Montevideo Maru ship. Photo: Australian War Memorial via AP.
The sinking of the Montevideo Maru is one of Australia's worst maritime tragedies.
According to the Silentworld Foundation, nearly 1,060 people of 14 nationalities were killed, including 979 Australians, of whom 850 were in the military.
They had been captured a few months earlier by Japanese forces in the fall of the coastal township of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.
"Finally, the resting place for the lost souls of the Montevideo Maru has been found. We hope the news brings some comfort to loved ones who have had a long vigil," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Silentworld stated that the remains of the Montevideo Maru, which
are deeper than those of the Titanic
, will not be removed, nor will objects or human remains, out of respect for the families of the victims.
The find ends the search for the remains of the worst maritime disaster in Australian history.
Photo: EFE/SILENTWORLD FOUNDATION.
"The discovery of the Montevideo Maru closes a terrible chapter in Australia's military and maritime history," said John Mullen, director of Silentworld, which has carried out the search together with Dutch offshore prospecting company Fugro and the Australian military.
"Families waited years for news of their missing loved ones before learning of the tragic outcome.
Some never fully accepted that their loved ones were among the victims
," she said.
This accident alone lost twice as many Australian soldiers and civilian lives as in the entire Vietnam War, and surpasses the 1941 sinking of HMAS Sydney, with 645 fatalities, and the 1943 hospital ship Centaur, with 268 fatalities.
Among the dead aboard the Montevideo Maru were 33 sailors from the Norwegian freighter Herstein - also taken prisoner by the Japanese in Rabaul - and about twenty Japanese guards and crew, according to Silentworld.
According to the same source, the victims of the shipwreck also included citizens of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Sweden and the United States.
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