From Copy to Clarity: Before Centaur
The sinking of a hospital ship
On 14 May 1943 the 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur was en route from Sydney to Cairns when she was sunk by a Japanese submarine south of Moreton Island, off the Queensland coast.
From the 332 people on board, only 64 survived.
Location of the shipwreck
Discovered in 2009, the AHS Centaur, sunk on 14 May 1943, is approximately 56 kms east of Moreton Island, Queensland.
Photographs and the human cost of tragedy
When telling a story marked by tragedy, such as the sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, images play an important role in shaping memory and understanding. Portrait photographs help people connect with stories of loss by putting faces to historical events.
But when tragedy occurs on a large scale, individual portraits can fall short. In these cases, a group photograph—taken before disaster struck—can convey scale, shared experience and collective loss.
Restoring a lost record
From copy to clarity: Discovery of original negatives has allowed for identification of the Australian crew. This was possibly the last photography of the crew before their transfer to AHS Centuar. P04298.001
One such image is a crew portrait of Australian staff serving aboard the Netherlands hospital ship Oranje, which was used to transport wounded soldiers back to Australia during the Second World War.
This group was photographed in early 1943, shortly before 28 of the Australians shown (27 of whom appear in the photograph) were transferred from the Oranje to the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur. Of those 28, only ten survived the torpedoing of the Centaur; 18 were killed.
The first version of this photograph held by the AWM was a copy print supplied by Frederick Bessill Chidgey, himself a survivor of the Centaur sinking. Chidgey appears in the image and had identified most of the individuals pictured.
However, the print was visibly soft, indicating that it had been copied from another photograph rather than printed from an original negative.
The AWM's Photography, Film and Sound Curator, Joanne Smedley, said the discovery of original negatives were a curator's dream.
'This is likely the last photo taken of the crew before they transferred to AHS Centuar.' - Joanne Smedley, Photography, Film and Sound Curator
Over time, the AWM acquired several copied versions of the same group portrait. While staff were confident of the image’s general context, key details—such as the precise date, location and circumstances in which it was taken—remained unconfirmed.
From copy to clarity: Slide to reveal how the rediscovery of original negatives restores detail, accuracy and context to this wartime group portrait. P04298.001
The discovery of the original negatives
Earlier this year, while collections were being relocated to a new repository in the C. E. W. Bean Building, staff made a significant discovery. A set of original negatives was identified among material transferred to the AWM after the Second World War from the New South Wales State Publicity Censor’s archive.
These negatives proved to be the originals used to create the long-held crew portrait. Crucially, they came with a confirmed date of creation. The censor had previously produced a trimmed version of one image, removing details of the Oranje’s superstructure. When compared with the original negatives—three of which were used to construct the composite image—the difference in clarity and detail was striking.
Earlier this year, while collections were being relocated to a new repository in the C. E. W. Bean Building, AWM staff including Joanne Smedley, Photography, Film and Sound Curator, made a significant discovery.
Group portrait of medical staff of Hospital Ship Oranje prior to their transfer to Australian Hospital Ship Centaur. Many of this group were killed in action when the Centaur was torpedoed by the Japanese on 14 May 1943. P04298.001
A fully dated image—and its significance
Perhaps the most important find was a separate negative (AWM2024.1099.1) bearing a handwritten inscription: the ship’s name Oranje and the date, 2 March 1943. This annotation allowed staff to state with certainty that the photograph was taken just days before the Australian crew were transferred to the Centaur.
It firmly anchored the image in time, transforming it from a loosely contextualised portrait into a precise historical record of a moment immediately preceding tragedy.
Last Post Ceremony to remember
Join us at the Last Post Ceremony, telling the story of Private John Forrest, who was on the Centaur when it was stuck by a torpedo.
The Nurses of the Centaur
Informal group portrait of 12 Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) nurses on the deck of 2/3 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur.
Nine names are written on the back of the print, with the statement that they had previously served on 1 Netherlands Hospital Ship Oranje. The other unnamed nurses have since been identified.
During the same relocation process, staff also uncovered a copy print depicting a group of 12 nurses, with several names pencilled on the reverse. Subsequent research confirmed the group as Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) nurses who had served aboard both the Oranje and the Centaur.
The image shows an informal group portrait of the nurses on the deck of 2/3 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur. Of the twelve nurses pictured, eleven were killed when the ship was torpedoed off the Queensland coast on 14 May 1943.
Only Sister Ellen Savage survived.
Thanks to detailed research—including earlier work by Lorna Howlett in The Oranje Story (1991)—all individuals in the photograph have now been identified.
The image, once only partially understood, now stands as one of the most poignant visual records of the Centaur tragedy.
Sister Ellen Savage was the only nurse to survive. Despite suffering severe bruising, a fractured nose, burst ear drums, a broken palate and fractured ribs, she managed to join other survivors on a makeshift raft.