Montevideo Maru
|
|
The Montevideo Maru was a Japanese auxiliary vessel. Prior to the Second World War, it operated as a passenger and cargo vessel, travelling mainly between Asia and South America.
On 22 June 1942, some weeks after the fall of Rabaul, the Montevideo Maru was in that port, where 845 Australian Prisoners of war and 206 civilian internees where embarked.
She was proceeding without any escort or notification of the Allies to the Chinese island of Hainan, when the ship was sighted by the American submarine Sturgeon near the northern Philippine coast, on 30 June. The Sturgeon fired four torpedoes at the Montevideo Maru, sinking it before dawn of 1 July.
Source:
http://www.jje.info/lostlives/exhib/potp/montevideomaru.html