He Japanese ship “Montevideo Maru” It was found last Tuesday, April 18, at a depth of more than 4,000 meters in the South China Sea, 110 km from the Philippine island of Luzon. The news was announced by the Silentworld Foundation for Underwater Archaeology. This ship had been torpedoed during World War IIexactly on July 1, 1942.
Deep-sea explorers were the ones who located the wreckage of the ship. According to Silentworld, around 1,060 people of 14 nationalities were killed, including 979 Australians, of whom 850 were in the military.
Regarding the boat, “we believe it was hit by two torpedoes,” Captain Roger Turner, the expedition’s technical director, told AFP. The ship broke in two: the bow and stern lay about 500 meters from each other on the seabed, he added.
The sinking of the “Montevideo Maru” is one of Australia’s worst maritime tragedies.
The prisoners 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.
According to the Silentworld Foundation, it took more than five years to plan the search missionwhich began on April 6.
Deeper than the Titanic
The foundation admitted that the remains of the “Montevideo Maru” are deeper than those of the “Titanic” and they will not be removed, like the human remains, out of respect for the families of the victims. “The discovery of the ‘Montevideo Maru’ closes a terrible chapter in Australia’s military and maritime history,” said John Mullen, director of Silentworld, who has carried out the search together with Dutch offshore prospecting company Fugro and the military. Australian.
“Families waited for 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,” he said.
In the search mission, it is important to highlight that the Australian Andrea Williams also participated, whose grandfather and great-uncle were prisoners of war and died in the sinking of the ship. “(It is) very emotional, but also a great source of pride to have been able to find the remains (of the ship),” she told AFP. In addition, she admitted that the news was extremely comforting for the relatives of the victims.
According to General Simon Stuart, head of the Australian Army, After 81 years, the uncertainty for these people is over. “A loss like this spans decades and reminds us of the human cost of conflict,” she said.
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, among the victims of the shipwreck were citizens of other countries: the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Sweden and the United States.
Source-larepublica.pe
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