Chapter 6 The Empire Star — the Ship That Would Not Die
Staff Nurses Margaret Anderson, G.M., and Veronica Torney, M.B.E., who attended and protected the wounded men under their care even at the risk of their own lives.
Photo courtesy Australian War memorial, accession number 136836
The ship's holds stank of stale meat but it was a refrigerated cargo ship and that was to be expected. However, the vessel and all its holds and cabins were now crowded with wounded soldiers, nurses, troops and refugees, many of whom were women and children. After fleeing Singapore just days before the island's capitulation in February 1942, those on board should have been relatively safe, but when the Empire Star was sighted by Japanese aircraft, just hours after leaving harbour, it was subjected to an intense aerial bombing attack that all but sank the ship and created two heroines whose astonishing bravery provided an ineradicable addition to the folklore of the sea.
Margaret Anderson and Vera Torney were just two young Australian nurses trying to do their duty and to alleviate the suffering inflicted on the British and Allied soldiers who had been desperately defending Singapore. Now they found themselves on the deck of the Empire Star as wave after wave of Japanese aircraft bombed the ship and strafed the decks with machine-gun fire. It was at this very moment that both nurses, displaying what was later described as unbelievable gallantry, actually used their own bodies to protect the patients under their care. The decks of the ship were being shredded with bullets, shrapnel was flying everywhere, killing many of those who were forced to remain exposed, but these two nurses completely ignored the danger to themselves so that they were able to help and protect those most in need.
The Empire Star had been the centre of an enduring legend in gallantry but it was also to become the focus of stubborn resolution. The ship would die and it would take no fewer than seven torpedoes to kill it. Men would die with the ship and they would die just as hard. Yet their passage into the next world would be one tempered by determined resolution and a lasting, bittersweet courage. The kind that endures forever.