NEPTUNA 1924

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a cargo-passenger vessel by Fried Krupp A.G. at Kiel for Schuldt’s Flensburger Damps.
1924 Launched under the name RIO PANUCO.
Tonnage 5.952 gross, 3.607 net., dim. 393.1 x 51.9 x 25.3ft.
Two Krupp diesels, 760 nhp., speed 13 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 90 passengers.

After completing used in the liner service from Hamburg and Southampton to Vera Cruz, Tampico and Galveston in Texas.
In the beginning of the thirties the line was in decline and for some periods she was laid up.
December 1932 complete withdraw from service, and put on the sale list.
1934 Sold to the Norddeutscher Lloyd at Bremen, with the intention to put her in the liner service from Australia to the Far East.
She was refitted with four suites and a swimming pool and accommodation for 80 first class and 20-second class passengers. She was renamed in NEPTUN.
She loaded cargo at Antwerp in October 1934, sailed direct to Melbourne and Sydney, where she arrived on 6 December, departing two days later for Hong Kong.
The local ship owners in Australia were not pleased with the new competition and raised the matter with the Australian Government. The Australian Government put pressure on the NDL to withdraw from the trade.
In January 1935 Burn Philp bought her and when she arrived on her next voyage from Hong Kong she was handed over in Sydney on 7 February.
At that time Burn Philp did not have a service to Hong Kong, but they decided to use her in that service, with an extension to Saigon.
09 Feb. 1935 she left for her first voyage for her new owners Sydney.
11 March 1935 her name was altered to NEPTUNA, and registered at Hong Kong.
During her time for Burn Philp she suffered from a series of engine problems that put her in dock several times.
After outbreak of World War II in September 1939 was she used in various services by the Australian Navy, but she was not requisitioned.
When Japan entered the war in December 1941 the NEPTUNA was sent to New Guinea to begin evacuating women and she was kept in this run until January 1942.

Then she was sent to Darwin, where she arrived early February with on board general cargo and also several 100 tons of dept-charges and TNT, which was stowed in hold no 3 and 4.
Due to congestion in the port she had to wait on the outer anchorage till 19 Feb. before there was any berth available. After she was berthed alongside the jetty, the BAROSSA moored on the other side of the jetty. The sloop HMAS SWAN moored alongside NEPTUNA the same day, to take on board some ammunition.
At around 10 am high level Japanese planes appeared and began to bomb the town and port. HMAS SWAN cut her mooring lines and steamed in the harbour, but the NEPTUNA due to engine repair was unable to move from the jetty. A stick of bombs were dropped from a low flying Japanese bomber and hit the vessel, one bomb passed through the bridge into the saloon below were many men were sheltering and all were killed by the explosion. An other bomb exploded in the boiler room igniting a huge fire.
With not any power left, the fire pumps could not be used, and the men still alive on board and aware of the dangerous cargo on board abandoned ship. The BAROSSA was towed away from the jetty, but seconds later the NEPTUNA blew up, smoke and flames rising over three hundred feet in the air. Part of the bow landed on the foredeck of the BAROSSA but she was lucky to escape destruction. A section of side plating of the NEPTUNA complete with two unbroken portholes was found on shore 300 yards from the jetty.
The ship was broken in two parts by the explosion and the bowpart was floating near the jetty before turning round on her side and sank. The stern section on her side sank alongside the jetty.
From the 125 people on board during the attack 45 were killed including the captain and many injured.

1959 the wreck was salvaged by Fujita Salvage Company of Osaka, Japan.

On the stamp she is depict on the left side of the stamp on fire.

Australia 1992 45c sg1338, scott1253.

Sources: The Ships of Burns, Philp and Company by Ronald Parson. Passenger Ships of Australia and New Zealand, by Peter Plowman.

[Johnno]

Thanks for this info, very interesting. My grandfather, Andrew DeJulia was killed in that air raid whilst working on the wharf near The Neptuna.
John White
Canberra, Aust.