Friday, April 10, 2009

Centaur Search Getting Underway

The April 6th Australian Courier-Mail, reported that David Mearms will head the search for the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur. He was the one who headed up the successful operations to locate the HMAS Sydney and German raider Kormoran last year.

Mearms told government officials and Centaur stakeholders that the final recorded bearing of the Centaur's navigator Gordon Rippon will determine the search area.

The Centaur was brightly lit and identified as a hospital ship, but was still torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank within minutes. Shortly before the torpedo hit, Rippon took a bearing 23 nautical miles e-ne of Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island.

Rippon was one of only 64 survivors and continued his naval career during and after the war.

In the 1970s, the Japanese admitted that submarine I-177 sank the Centaur. Mearms will be examining Japanese archives for a few moths before actual operations begin.

The Centaur is believed to be in 2000 meters of water on the continental slope. Look-but-don't-touch rules will be in effect for the expedition. The expedition won't attempt to solve the continuing rumor that the Centaur was carrying war munitions.

Sure Hope They Discover the Ship. --Cooter

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