LIFE AS A FEPOW · HELLSHIPS, 1944

 

The Maros Maru

 

In 1944 the Maros Maru took 67 days to carry British and Dutch prisoners from Ambon to Java. Around half of the men on board died of thirst, hunger and disease.

 

 

 

From the Spice Islands

 

In 1943 thousands of British and Dutch prisoners were shipped from Java to the Moluccas to build airfields on the islands of Haruku and Ambon. Hundreds of them died there of disease, starvation and ill treatment.

 

In 1944, with the Allies advancing, the Japanese began moving the survivors back to Java. On 17 September 1944 around 500 British and Dutch prisoners, among them men of the RAF, were marched aboard the Maros Maru at Ambon, bound for Surabaya.

 

 

 

 

A Ship Barely Afloat

 

The Maros Maru was a small Dutch vessel of about 600 tons. She had been sunk at Batavia in 1942 and raised by the Japanese, and she was hardly seaworthy.

 

With the holds full of cargo, the prisoners were packed onto the open deck, so tightly that one survivor compared it to a London tube train in the rush hour. They were given less than half a pint of drinking water a day, and the only latrines were two wooden boxes slung over the side. An awning was only put up after thirty men had died of thirst and exposure.

 

 

 

 

Raha and the Gulf of Boni

 

On 21 September the ship reached Raha, off the coast of Celebes. Around 150 more British and Dutch prisoners were brought aboard there, the survivors of another ship that had been attacked from the air and sunk.

 

At the northern end of the Gulf of Boni the engines broke down. Prisoners, among them a Royal Navy petty officer named Platt, were made to help repair them.

 

 

 

 

Forty Days at Macassar

 

When the ship reached Macassar in southern Celebes she stayed in the harbour for more than forty days. The prisoners were kept on deck the whole time, in blistering heat, with very little water and even less food.

 

Men died of beriberi, dysentery and thirst, at times as many as eight a day, and were buried over the side. During the stay at Macassar 159 prisoners died, and by the time the ship sailed again the total had reached 250.

 

 

 

 

Arrival in Java

 

The Maros Maru finally reached Surabaya 67 days after leaving Ambon. Of the roughly 650 prisoners who had been on board, around 325 had died, most of them British. Many of those who survived were barely alive when they were carried ashore.

 

 

 

 

Remembering the Maros Maru

 

The Maros Maru was never torpedoed or bombed. The men who died aboard her were killed by thirst, hunger, disease and neglect over more than two months at sea and at anchor.

 

They had already survived the airfield camps of Haruku and Ambon, and their sacrifice must never be forgotten.

 

Their story is one of many told on our Hellships page.