Difference between revisions of "MS Gorgon"
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==Remarks== | ==Remarks== | ||
− | Built for the Holt Blue Funnel Line to operate for the West Australian Steam Navigation Company | + | Built for the Holt Blue Funnel Line to operate for the West Australian Steam Navigation Company on their north west, Java and Singapore route. She continued this service until Singapore fell on 15 Feb 1942. One of a group of 46 ships that were the last to leave Singapore Harbour before the surrender. Of these only 6 made it to Australia safely, MS ''Gorgon'' being one of them. The death toll was horrendous and most of the survivors of the ships which were sunk spent the rest of the war in the privation and horrors of Japanese internment camps in Sumatra where up to 30 percent died in some camps. |
Revision as of 21:09, 10 October 2023
Contents
Remarks
Built for the Holt Blue Funnel Line to operate for the West Australian Steam Navigation Company on their north west, Java and Singapore route. She continued this service until Singapore fell on 15 Feb 1942. One of a group of 46 ships that were the last to leave Singapore Harbour before the surrender. Of these only 6 made it to Australia safely, MS Gorgon being one of them. The death toll was horrendous and most of the survivors of the ships which were sunk spent the rest of the war in the privation and horrors of Japanese internment camps in Sumatra where up to 30 percent died in some camps.
During the second half of the war she served as a naval-requisitioned support vessel running between Australian east coast ports and the islands north of Australia, principally New Guinea. In April 1943 the SS Gorgon was bombed and damaged in Milne Bay, with 4 of her crew killed.
Sold for scrap, it arrived at Hong Kong on 10 Aug 1964 for breaking by Leung Yau Company. in 1964