And now for the Montevideo Maru

The letter that follows, written by Paul Jones, was published in the Canberra Times on Monday 9 June under the heading, ‘Search for Maru’. In response, Paul had a phone call from Les Drew, the local contact for a group pressing the Federal Government to find the ill-fated ship. Les encourages anybody with an interest to contact Cynthia Schmidt at

rabaul1941@gmail.com. Paul wrote:

“With HMAS Sydney located and the last resting place of so many Australians known at last, we can now properly turn our much needed focus to locating the Montevideo Maru and the 1053 men lost with her. As Australia 's greatest maritime disaster, the Montevideo Maru, transporting these 1053 soldiers and civilian prisoners of war from the occupied New Guinea islands of New Britain and New Ireland, was torpedoed by an American submarine off the Philippines on 1 July 1942.

“There was some interest when the Montevideo Maru Memorial was commissioned at Ballarat on 7/2/04, as part of the POW wall commemoration. Also, from time to time over recent years media has shown interest, including Compass on 20/4/08 on the fate of the Brunswick Salvation Army Band which served as medical attendants for 2/22 Battalion, which was lost with the exception of a single survivor now living in Victoria.

“As the 66th anniversary of the sinking looms, it is heartening to learn that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is considering an appeal to provide funds to search for the location of the Montevideo Maru, with the prospect of the site being declared a war grave.”

You can contact Paul at paulm.jones@optusnet.com.au