Archive for October, 2008
Finding the wreck of Centaur
David Mearns, who found HMAS Sydney, is keen to find the wreck of the Australian hospital ship Centaur before ANZAC Eve 2009.
David told us that he would like to find Centaur before Port Adelaide’s major ANZAC event Light on the Water on April 24 commemorates her sinking.
Adelaide school students will make 3000 cardboard candle-lit lifeboats that will float on the Port River to honour those where lost when Centaur was torpedoed and sunk off Queensland in 1943.
In an interview with Sydney Morning Herald writer Jonathan Dart, David said the task was feasible so long as there was funding.
The world-renowned shipwreck hunter said he has conducted preliminary research on Centaur and said it would be easier to find than Sydney and Kormoran.
He said the only barriers to finding Centaur were a lack of money and political will.
“On the basis of what I’ve seen of her, I believe she’s findable,” he said. “The information, even at this preliminary stage, is better than what I had to deal with in locating … Kormoran and Sydney.
“I think the water depth isn’t a barrier; I don’t think there are any environmental problems. But how it’s organised, who funds it — those are all big questions.”
