"Motor Ship 'Montevideo Maru' Propelling Machinery: Mitsubishi-Sulzer Diesel Engines. Built and ...

"Motor Ship 'Montevideo Maru' Propelling Machinery: Mitsubishi-Sulzer Diesel Engines. Built and Engined at the Nagasaki Works for the Osaka Shosen Kaisha's South American Service.". During the Second World War this ship was used by the Japanese as a transport vessel. On 22 June 1942 an estimated 845 prisoners of war (POWs) and 209 civilians captured by Japanese forces embarked from Rabaul, New Britain, aboard the Japanese transport ship MV Montevideo Maru. The POWs were members of the No. 1 Independent Company, 2/22 Battalion, and other units of Lark Force. Civilians included officials of the New Guinea Administration and missionaries. The ship sailed unescorted for Hainan Island. On 1 July 1942 all the prisoners died when the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines.