The hospital ship was the Centaur, it was sunk off Moreton Island which is about 20 kilometers off Caloundra (my hometown which in turn is 100 kilometres north of Brisbane in Queensland). I took my wife (who is Japanese) for a drive around Caloundra and she saw the memorial for the people who had died, she cried a bit after I explained the story to her. Like most Japanese she thought that the war was only between Japan and the US. If I remember correctly, most of the survivors were taken by sharks.
Maybe getting off topic, but in those days Caloundra was really remote so getting to the survivors would have taken ages. Also the famous (for Australians anyway), 'Brisbane Line' passes through the town.
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