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At 4 am on 14 May 1943 the brightly-lit Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was torpedoed and sunk off Stradbroke Island. In this renegade act, 268 lives were lost with the Centaur, more than from any other Japanese torpedo attack in Australian waters during the war.
Sister Ellen Savage was asleep in her bunk when the Centaur collapsed around her:
Merle Morton and Ellen Savage were awakened by two terrific explosions and practically thrown out of bed ...she registered mentally that it was a torpedo explosion ... In that instant the ship was in flames ... they ran into Colonel Manson, their commanding officer, in full dress even to his cap and 'Mae West' life-jacket, who kindly said 'That's right girlies, jump for it now.' The first words Nurse Savage was to say 'Will I have time to go back for my great-coat?' as they were only in pyjamas. He said 'No' and with that climbed they deck and jumped ... the ship was commencing to go down. It all happened in three minutes.
The suction of the sinking Centaur dragged Sister Savage down into a whirlpool of moving metal and wood. Her ribs, nose and palate were broken, her ear drums perforated and she sustained multiple bruises. Then she was propelled to the surface in the middle of an oil slick.
Sister Savage found her way to a raft that was part of the Centaur's wheel-house. During the 36 hours on this makeshift raft, Sister Savage gave whatever medical care she could to survivors despite being badly injured herself.
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Seaman Martin Pash remembered that the Centaur “just went straight down. There was no noise or anything – a lot of people calling out, the nurses and all … The deck boy brought Sister Savage on. She had a fractured jaw. You wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with her but she suffered very badly. She had broken ribs and [was] bruised and one of the fellas gave her his overcoat to put over her.”
On the raft Seaman Morris was crammed up next to the badly burned Private Walder. Morris recalls Walder's death:
He'd died next to me and his burns just stuck on my arm ... And I said to Sister Savage who was practically opposite me, I said: 'I think this
young chap's dead'. And she said: 'Are you sure'. And I said: '
Well, I'm pretty sure'. As she felt over she said: 'He's passed on'. So I took his identification disc off him and his name was
John Walder, New South Wales army man. I gave his identification disc to Sister Savage and she said: 'Will you answer the Rosary?'. And I said: 'Yes, I'll do my best'.
She said the Rosary and I answered it and we buried him at sea.
Despite her own injuries, 30-year-old Sister Ellen Savage nursed the wounded and boosted the morale of the others. The other eleven nurses all drowned. After a day and a half adrift on life rafts, the 64 survivors were spotted by an RAAF Anson and recovered by the destroyer USS Mugford.
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On the afternoon of Saturday 15 May, 32 hours after the Centaur had slipped to the bottom, the Naval Officer in Charge
Brisbane, Captain E P Thomas, received a message from the USS Mugford. The American destroyer was picking up survivors from the hospital ship Centaur 40
miles east of Cape Moreton. It was the first Australia knew of the nation's worst loss from submarine attack during the war.
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Sister Savage’s courage was recognised by the award of the George Medal.
Sister Ellen Savage, Australian Army Nursing Service, was awarded the George Medal for courage during the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur off Stradbroke Island, Queensland, on 13 May 1943.
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