SYDNEY: The wreck of a Japanese transport ship that was torpedoed by a US submarine while carrying many Australian prisoners of war in 1942 was recently found off the coast of the Philippines, at a depth of some 4,000 meters, an Australian survey team said Saturday.

The Montevideo Maru was attacked by the US submarine Sturgeon and sank in the South China Sea on July 1, 1942, during World War II, when it was sailing toward China’s Hainan Island from Rabaul, now Papua New Guinea, which was then occupied by the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army.

The ship was transporting 1,053 POWs, 979 of whom were Australians. All of the POWs are believed to have died in the incident.

The team led by Australia’s Silentworld Foundation started searching for the ship on April 6 through cooperation with the Australian Defense Department and Dutch deep-sea survey company Fugro.

The team found the wreck of the ship on Tuesday by using an unmanned underwater vehicle and later identified it as that of the Montevideo Maru through detailed analyses.

The wreck will not be salvaged, and no artifacts or human remains will be collected, according to the team.

JIJI Press