MV ''Neptuna'' was a 5,952 ton cargo motor vessel. She was launched as MV ''Rio Panuco'' in 1924, renamed MV ''Neptun'' in 1931 and finally became MV ''Neptuna'' in 1935. She was sunk during the Japanese air raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Career

''Rio Panuco'' was built and launched in 1924 in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

for H. Schuldt's Flensburger Dampfer Co. She traded between Germany and Central America until 1931 when the company went bankrupt in the Great Depression. She was sold to

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...

Line (NDL) of Bremen, who renamed her ''Neptun''. By 1934 was running her on the service between

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and Hong Kong in competition with

Burns, Philp & Co Burns Philp (properly Burns, Philp & Co, Limited) was once a major Australian shipping line and merchant that operated in the South Pacific. When the well-populated islands around New Guinea were targeted for blackbirding in the 1880s, a new ...

. Burns, Philp asked the Australian Government to stop NDL from operating out of New Guinea but the government declined. Darwin 42

Instead the Australian government offered to pay the interest on any money Burns, Philp borrowed to buy her. This was agreed so in 1935 Burns, Philp bought her and renamed her ''Neptuna''. Burns, Philp is an Australian company but it registered ''Neptuna'' in Hong Kong. She operated on the Australia, New Guinea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon service. Saigon in

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

(now Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam) was then the main source of supply of rice to New Guinea. Neptuna explosion 19 February 1942

Sinking

In February 1942 ''Neptuna'' was off Stokes Hill Wharf,

Darwin, Australia Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smalle ...

unloading a cargo of depth charges,

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

, and other armaments. MV Neptuna was sunk on 19 February 1942 during the 9:58 bombing raid in which bombs exploded in ''Neptunas saloon and engine room. Forty-five men died on board including 9 wharf labourers and 36 crew members. Many others were seriously injured and the ship was set on fire. As the crew prepared to abandon her, 100 depth charges exploded,"Loss of the MV Neptuna at Darwin, 19th February, 1942 – Report by John Hyde Ship Surgeon"
National Archives of Australia NAA. B6121, 156B showering the harbour with debris and sending flames and smoke 100 metres into the air. Part of the wreck was salvaged by the

Fujita salvage operation The Fujita salvage operation was a two-year marine salvage operation of World War II shipwrecks in Darwin Harbour in the Northern Territory of Australia from 1959 to 1961. Bombing of Darwin Darwin was bombed by the Japanese Imperial Navy on ...

in 1960. The remainder still lies in Darwin Harbour at .

References

Boniface, George W. "The Bombing of the MV Neptuna by Japanese in Darwin 1942" in Smith, Alan Carnegie. Outback Corridor. Plympton, S. Aust. : A.C. Smith, 2002. p. 205-213 Buckley, K. and Klugman, K. The Australian presence in the Pacific : Burns Philp, 1914–1946. Sydney : George Allen & Unwin, 1983. McCarthy, Sophie. World War II shipwrecks and the first Japanese air raid on Darwin, 19 February 1942. Darwin : Northern Territory Museum of Arts & Sciences, 1992. Smith, Neil C. With the red duster : Gardenvale, Vic. : Mostly Unsung Military History Research and Publications, c 2006. Steinberg, David Raising the war: Japanese salvage divers and allied shipwrecks in post-war Darwin Bulletin of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, v.33, 2009: 11–18

External links

Australia's Merchant NavyPhoto of undamaged ship– Darwin, 19 February 1942 / by Brendan de Burca – Personal recollections of the bombing of Darwin – 1942 / written in 1987 by George W. Boniface.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neptuna World War II merchant ships of Australia Ships sunk in the bombing of Darwin, 1942 Merchant ships sunk by aircraft Maritime incidents in February 1942 Ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd 1924 ships