The remains of a Japanese ship that was torpedoed near the Philippines during World War II, killing more than 1,000 prisoners, has been found by deep-sea researchers in the South China Sea, 70 miles off the Philippine island of Luzon.

The Silentworld Foundation for underwater archeology announced this on Saturday, after they had found the ship “Montevideo Maru” on April 18.

The discovery of the ship, sunk on July 1, 1942 by an American submarine whose crew were unaware of having POWs on board, came after 12 days of searching with an underwater drone with sonar.

“We think it was hit by two torpedoes,” Captain Roger Turner, the expedition’s technical director, told AFP by phone.

The ship broke in two, the bow and stern lying about 500 meters apart on the seabed, it added.

maritime tragedy

The sinking of the “Montevideo Maru” is one of Australia’s worst maritime tragedies.

Nearly 1,060 people of 14 nationalities were killed, including 979 Australians, of whom 850 were in the military, according to the Silentworld Foundation.

They had been captured by Japanese forces a few months earlier at the fall of the coastal town of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.

“Finally, the resting place for the lost souls of the ‘Montevideo Maru’ has been found. We hope the news brings some comfort to loved ones who have had a long vigil,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

According to the Silentworld Foundation, it took more than five years to plan the search mission, which began April 6.

Silentworld stated that the remains of the “Montevideo Maru”, which are deeper than those of the “Titanic”, will not be removed.

Neither objects nor human remains will be removed, out of respect for the families of the victims.

The human price of conflict

“The discovery of the ‘Montevideo Maru’ closes a terrible chapter in Australia’s military and naval history,” said John Mullen, director of Silentworld, which conducted the search with Dutch offshore prospecting company Fugro and the Australian military.

“Families waited years for news of their missing loved ones before learning of the tragic outcome. Some have never fully accepted that their loved ones were among the victims,” ​​he said.

Joining the search mission was Australian Andrea Williams, whose grandfather and great-uncle, both POWs, died in the ship’s sinking.

It is “very emotional, but also a great source of pride that we were able to find the wreck of the ship,” he told AFP, saying the news was “extremely reassuring” for the families of the victims.

The discovery of the wreck ended 81 years of uncertainty for the families of the victims, said General Simon Stuart, chief of the Australian army.

“A loss like this spans decades and reminds us of the human cost of conflict,” he said.

Among those killed aboard the “Montevideo Maru” were 33 sailors from the Norwegian freighter “Herstein” – also captured by the Japanese in Rabaul – and about 20 Japanese guards and crew members, Silentworld said.

According to the same source, the victims of the shipwreck included citizens of other countries: the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Sweden and the United States.