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Australia

M.V. Neptuna (Hong Kong) 
Australian Merchant Navy

Son of John Henry and Isabella Mary Pollard; husband of Sarah Beatrice Pollard, of Hurstville, New South Wales.

Eric Henry Pollard

26 November 1941 – Hong Kong

Eric Pollard was living the boys’ own adventure, to travel the world to the exotic places from which legends were born on the tramp steamers straight out of storybooks. It wasn’t always adventure though but from high up in the radio office behind the bridge, it wasn’t the hard life of the average merchant seaman either. See the world on full pay was very enticing for any young man with a hankering to see the world without having to climb the rigging or to swab the decks.

Born at St Peters, New South Wales in 1898, the fourth son of John Henry Pollard (1859 – 1928) and Isabella Mary Cowley (1862 – 1951), Eric had been at sea for just short of 20 years working as a radio officer for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Limited (AWA) and contracted per voyage to any ship needing his services.

As a radio officer in the merchant navy, Eric had one primary role, the safety of life at sea.  Every ocean-going ship, and even some coastal vessels of a certain tonnage, had by maritime law to carry at least one fully qualified radio officer. These would be employed by one of the Marine radio companies such as AWA/Marconi and assigned to a ship by the company’s personnel department. The type of ship varied as did its destination. He could literally be visiting any port in the world depending on the type of ship and its trading routes. Some were on regular runs between certain ports all the time, others would possibly be tramping all over the world. A radio officer might be away for 2 or 3 months or up to 2 years on some ships.

Since a ship was not allowed to sail without a radio officer, sometimes Eric would have to leave at short notice to join a ship that was sailing. When the ship sailed the radio officer would go on watch in the radio room. He would listen on the international distress frequency of 500 kHz in case a distress, SOS or urgency signal XXX, or maybe a safety signal TTT was being sent. During this time on watch, other work would also be undertaken such as sending traffic reports and routings to local coast stations as they passed by and to the other stations informing them also of the ship’s routing and which areas or stations he would be listening to during the voyage.

At 15 to 18 minutes past each hour, and at 45 to 48 minutes past each hour, were “Silence Periods” where every ship station and coast station had to listen intently on the distress frequency 500 kHz for any signs of a ship in a distress situation. Only when this 3-minute period was over and no distress calls were heard was it ok to resume any normal traffic working. Even when doing other work on different frequencies the radio officer still had to listen on 500 kHz on the emergency receiver for any kind of distress signal. On passenger ships such as Neptuna the radio room was the ship’s only link with what was happening in the rest of the world. The radio officers, in addition to their normal work, would also produce the ship’s newsletter where they would pass on pieces of information received over the air. Neptuna carried three radio officers. As 1st Officer, Eric was in charge while 26-year-old Bob Davidson was his 2nd Officer. The 3rd Officer was Reg Vealle on only his second voyage.

Originally registered as the Rio Panuco, Neptuna had been built and launched in 1924 in Kiel, Germany for Flensburger Dampfer Co. She had traded between Germany and Central America until 1931 when the company went bankrupt in the Great Depression. The ship had then been sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd Line (NDL) of Bremen, who renamed her Neptun and by 1934 she was running on the service between New Guinea and Hong Kong in competition with Australia’s Burns Philp & Co. With the German company operating in direct competition to their island trade, Burns Philp bought her and renamed her Neptuna. Although Burns Philp was an Australian company it registered Neptuna in Hong Kong and she operated on the Australia, New Guinea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon service. Saigon, in French Indochina (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) was then the main source of supply of rice to New Guinea.

Eric had joined Neptuna as First Radio Officer in September 1939 when an urgent telegram from AWA had him transferring from another of Burn Philp’s ships, the MV Montoro, while docked in Singapore. For two years now Eric had been sailing a fairly regular route between Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong with reasonable stopovers at home in Sydney after each return trip. This was Neptuna’s final voyage for 1941. She had left Melbourne on 10 October and arrived in Hong Kong on 22 November after steaming via Sydney, Rabaul, Salamaua, Lae and Manilla carrying a mixture of cargo and passengers. Scheduled to leave on 27 November there was a good chance she would be back in Australia by New Year.

Despite the war in Europe being on the other side of the world, its effect could still be felt on this side of the Pacific. Only 12 months ago the New Zealand passenger liner Rangitane had been sunk by the German merchant raiders Komet and Orion just 300 miles east of Aukland while en route to Britain via the Panama Canal. Most of her passengers and crew had been dropped off on the tiny island of Emirau off New Guinea. Had Neptuna not been laid up in Sydney for repairs at the time there was every chance that she could have met up with the raiders too.

Hong Kong was different too. Many of the European families had gone, the expectation being that the colony was under threat from an expanding militarist Japan. The international community had been shocked by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. In response to League of Nations condemnation, Japan had withdrawn from the League, but the international community had not seen what happened in Manchuria since few Europeans lived there. After the Japanese had seized control, Manchuria had essentially been closed off to foreigners, especially journalists. The invasion of China proper was a different matter. The Japanese moved south in 1937 until they reached the Great Wall of China. Although Chiang Kai-shek pulled back his army to avoid war with Japan while he fought the Communists, elements in the Nationalist Army were less willing to tolerate Japanese advances. This led to a confrontation referred to as the Marco Polo Bridge incident that left several casualties on both sides. The Japanese military followed up with an attack on Shanghai.

The Japanese bombing of Shanghai was something that Chiang Kai-shek could not tolerate or hush up. Japanese bombers virtually obliterated the city for no real military objective before brutally occupying it. This was done in the full glare of scrutiny from the international sector of Shanghai which the Japanese did not attack. A few months later, the Japanese Army committed "The Rape of Nanking" which was all observed by numerous international observers. The Japanese behaved with a barbarity unseen since the Middle Ages and made even more horrible by the use of modern weapons. Reports of this were widely published around the world and the Missionary movement helped create an emotional attachment with the American public that made the Japanese brutalities in China to be a more personal matter.

The reports firmly established an image of Japan as both lawless and brutal, a reputation it had lived up to in its continued occupation of China. The Japanese atrocities in China so affected American opinion that President Roosevelt had more leeway in dealing with Japan than public opinion allowed with Nazi Germany. American diplomatic protests were gradually escalated to both economic sanctions and economic and military support for China. And now Hong Kong, and its international trade, was but a short distance from Japanese occupied China.

27 November 1941 – Hong Kong

Neptuna left Hong Kong on schedule to cross the South China Sea to Manilla with the weather on the cusp from the wet to the dry season. The crossing was as expected with the sea remaining relatively calm and hardly enough rain to dampen the passenger deck. Not that Neptune carried very many passengers. While many European families were getting out of Hong Kong while they could, not many were interested in going to Australia.

The saloon, located below the ship’s bridge with its large windows facing forward across the forecastle, was almost empty each evening. Normally the ship’s officers would join the passengers dressed for dinner each evening and those not on watches would entertain their captive audience over port and cigars with elongated tales of the sea. The ship’s medical officer was Dr John Hyde, a New Zealander who, in earlier times, specialised in surgical conditions of the bowel. Although softly spoken his monologues were always hurried as if he wanted to get to the point quickly.  Despite this, he was always completely at ease in no matter what company he found himself. He was an accepted authority on wines had a wonderful sense of humour.  He took delight in knocking over hardened drinkers with his cocktails. A group of Neptuna’s younger engineers would often be seen at a table together. George Boniface, 4th Engineer, along with Tom Fowler, 6th Engineer, and Cecil Cross, 7th Engineer, had all worked together at the Australian Iron and Steel works at Wollongong.

29 November 1941 – Manilla

The city of Manilla in 1941 could have been any western city in the world with its wide-open streets, its theatres and its parks, still largely uncrowded by the teeming population that crowds into the city today. The streets of its city centre thickly dotted with the white uniforms of American sailors on shore leave. As a regular port of call for Neptuna, Manilla was a familiar place although the ship rarely stayed for longer than a day. As the sun began to set Neptuna steamed across the almost smooth expanse of Manilla Bay towards the port, both sides of the main channel crowded with ships of all sorts. Prominent among them were the ships of the US Navy sent to the Philippines on what could only be described as 'sabre-rattling to remind the Japanese that they should behave.

Only four days earlier the US Government had rejected Japan’s offer to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina and not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia. Provided of course that the US, Britain, and the Netherlands ceased aiding China and lifted their sanctions against Japan. The American counterproposal of 26 November (the Hull note) required Japan to evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with Pacific powers. Even as the US response was being delivered, a Japanese task force of six aircraft carriers -  Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku plus support vessels - departed northern Japan en route to a position northwest of Hawaii with 408 aircraft on board.

30 November 1941 – Manilla

In Manilla, Neptuna took on several more European families no longer willing to take a chance on what might lay ahead. Not that anything could really happen, not with the might of the US Navy out there in the bay. With no time to waste the ship left port promptly at 7 am bound for the Mindoro Strait and then to pass between the southern Phillippines and the northern islands of Indonesia into the open Pacific Ocean heading for Madang on the north coast of New Guinea. From Madang, she would sail on to Rabaul in New Britain via the Bismarck Sea.

8 December 1941 – Madang

After a quiet journey with nothing out of the ordinary worth noting in the radio office log, Neptuna arrived at Madang on 8 December at 2:20 am. The funny thing about time zones in the Pacific though is that 2:20 am on 8 December in Madang is about 5:20 am on 7 December in Hawaii, or to be more specific, at the American naval base at Pearl Harbour. As the telegraph in Neptuna’s engine room was ringing ‘finished with engines’ the first wave of 180 Japanese aircraft was starting up its own engines from a position north of Oahu.

At Madang, Neptuna’s radio officers were kept busy monitoring the airwaves suddenly full of war news that was too close for comfort. A Japanese attack was not altogether unexpected but the loss of practically the entire US Pacific Fleet was almost too much to take in. Missed in the chaos of Pearl Harbour though were the simultaneous attacks on Thailand, Malaya and Hong Kong and by the time Neptuna left Madang at 9:10 pm the US had finally declared war on Japan. 

A few weeks earlier, when asking about the likelihood of evacuation in the event of war with Japan, the Australian Government received a resounding response from the Mandated Territory of New Guinea and Papua and from the Northern Territory that women and families in those regions did not desire evacuation. Now that bombs had begun to rain on otherwise neutral territory, that position had now probably changed. Due to the distances and isolation of many of the centres, an evacuation was only practicable by sea.

9-12 December 1941 – Bismark Sea

On 9 December the troop ship Katoomba was docked at Port Moresby with its future movements indefinite. At a pinch, Katoomba could accommodate 500 and could possibly be used to pick up some of the women and children evacuees from Papua and New Guinea. Altogether though a total of 700 evacuees were in Papua with a further 1700 scattered throughout New Guinea.

Three days later the Australian War Cabinet approved the compulsory evacuation women and children from Darwin and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea and Papua. Defence contacted the Department of External territories advising that Katoomba at Port Moresby was available to evacuate women and children and that prospective evacuees were to remain on 24 hours notice to embark. There were to be no exceptions to the compulsory evacuation except on the grounds that a person was too sick and that evacuation in itself would be too dangerous, missionaries who may wish to remain and nurses. Evacuation arrangements would be made by the Departments of External Territories, Navy and Civil Aviation and fares would be paid by the Commonwealth.

One of the reasons marine radio officers maintain silent periods twice each hour is that no matter what time zone your ship is currently situated the silent periods would never change. As Neptuna nosed her way through the Bismarck Sea, naval authorities were receiving reports of a German merchant raider operating in the same area. The silent period was finished off, not with silence, but with urgent morse beeps ordering all British ships to seek shelter. In particular, Neptuna was ordered to Port Moresby on New Guinea’s southern coast. The radio officer on duty ran along the boat deck to the bridge and passed the message along to the officer on watch.

Once he was woken from his sleep Captain Duddell gave orders for the ship to make for Salamaua which was the nearest port on the New Guinea mainland. From Salamaua the ship kept close to the New Guinea mainland all the way east around Milne Bay and the China Strait, then west again along the southern coast, reaching Port Moresby on 13 December.

13 December 1941 – Port Moresby

With Neptuna at Port Moresby was another Burns Philp passenger and cargo ship, the Macdhui, which had also been rerouted to shelter from the suspected raider. The Macdhui had arrived at Madang at around the same time as Neptuna but was still in port until early the following morning when it left for Wewak. Now both ships were again in port together and both captains were summoned to an urgent meeting with the Naval Officer in Charge, Port Moresby. On his return, Captain Duddell arranged for his passengers to be offloaded to Katoomba and then Neptuna and Macdhui waited for further orders.

18 December 1941 – Port Moresby

On 18 December the radios on both Neptuna and Macdhui received messages ordering that they proceed immediately to the island of Guam. When the ships left Port Moresby they headed east to round the mainland again at Milne Bay. But instead of heading north-west to Guam, they took a northerly course for Rabaul. The message was a ruse and Rabaul was their real destination, the evacuation of its civilian population their real mission.

19 December 1941 – Rabaul

Radio silence was the order of the day for the operators on both ships as they sailed up the west coast of New Britain, the sickly-sweet smell of copra blending with the acrid smell of sulphur as they drew closer to the volcanic pillars guarding both sides of the entrance to Blanche Bay and Simpson Harbour. The ships passed the rock formations known as the Beehives and headed for the wharf.

To Eric Pollard, Rabaul always seemed to have an air of something about to happen. He’d served on the Montoro since the eruption of 1937 and he’d heard the stories told in the mess by officers who’d been there at the time. The Montoro’s Captain, Bill Michie, had sailed the ship out of Rabaul with 200 evacuees on board and her decks covered in feet of ash.

Little time was to be wasted in port and the passengers began to embark within minutes of tying up. On they came, women of all ages struggling up the gangway with as much as they could carry, many with children to add to their worries. Behind on the wharf were the men most would be leaving behind. Husbands and fathers, civilians and soldiers, older men and young men. For most of the women and children boarding, this would be the last they saw of their men.

22 December 1941 – Rabaul

Neptuna left the dock at 7:45 am on 22 December leaving Macdhui to collect the last of the evacuees still coming from the more remote communities. Macdhui was a much faster ship and Neptuna had another assignment.

Milne Bay is a gaping mouth formed as a flooded valley between two mountain ranges at the eastern end of the Papua mainland. More than 35 kilometres long and over 15 kilometres wide, Milne Bay is a sheltered deep-water harbour, surrounded by the heavily wooded Stirling Range to the north and south, and on the northern shore, a narrow coastal strip, soggy with sago and mangrove swamps. When first settled as a district the bay itself, despite being a considerably deep harbour was considered unsuitable for white settlement because of the mosquitoes and their propensity to cause malaria. Instead, the administrative centre was located outside the bay on the tiny island of Samarai just 240,000 square metres in area. Despite its size, Samarai was the second-largest population centre in Papua and not one mosquito.

25 December 1941 – Samarai

It was dead on midnight as Christmas Eve began when Neptuna docked at Samarai. In the still of the early morning her new passengers were brought on board and by the time day broke the ship, now seriously overcrowded with its two loads of evacuees, was making her way through the China Strait and into the Coral Sea.

26 December 1941 – Townsville

On arrival at Townsville on Boxing Day Neptuna disembarked all of her excess passengers before being allowed to continue the voyage with a safe number, the remainder going on to Sydney where they arrived just in time to see in the New Year. 

For men like Eric Pollard for whom Sydney was their home port, this also meant the luxury of three weeks at home. Eric had been at sea for 20 years but that didn’t mean that his life was totally devoted to it. He had other interests too. In 1925 he married Sarah Perkins. For most of her time, Sarah lived alone in their home in Hurstville not far from her parents, with Eric able to stay for a couple of weeks at a time between voyages.

25 January 1942 – Sydney

Neptuna should have left Sydney days earlier, but a strike by the harbour’s wharfies had delayed it. Finally able to get away, the ship’s captain had fallen ill, and Captain Bill Michie had been sent by Burns Philp to replace him on this voyage. Captin Michie was a Scotsman who had worked for Burns Philp since he arrived in Australia in 1917. He had been master of the Montoro, Macdhui, Massina, Morinda and several other vessels in the Burns Philp fleet, primarily sailing between Australia and the Pacific Islands.

As Master of the Montoro in 1937, Captain Michie had been involved in the rescue of many people following the severe earthquake and volcanic eruptions in Rabaul. Covered in ash and dust, Montoro had evacuated 200 Europeans and thousands of Islanders from Rabaul to safety. A well-known figure in shipping circles, Captain Michie was a quiet, reserved man, studiously polite to his officers and crew and earning their utmost respect.

As Neptuna passed through Sydney Heads shortly after noon, George Boniface, the ship’s newly promoted 4th Engineer, took charge of the engine-room for the midday to 4 pm shift. As well as general stores bound for Darwin, Neptuna carried in her holds a fairly comprehensive cargo of explosives for the city’s defence.

Depth Charges Amatol - 100 - stowed loose

Depth Charges Primers - 100 - 10 per box

Shell 12 pdr (Unfuzed) - 174 - 6 per box

Time fuzes - 350 - in two boxes

Demolition Blocks - 1,000 - in wooden packing cases

Detonators Percussion - 110 - 10 per tin plate cylinder

Cartridges QF 12 pdr - 30 - 10 per wooden packages

Cartridges for Depth Charge Thrower - 38 - 10 per wooden box

Cartridges QF 4” V-Vx gun fixed ammunition with HE and HA practice projectiles - 212 - per wooden box

Cartridges small arm ball 303” - 50,520 - in 48 wooden boxes

Signal cartridges - 252

Flares - 48

Rockets Signal 1 lb - 55  

28 January 1942 – Brisbane

Despite the early hour, the humidity on the Brisbane River was heavy as Neptuna docked in Brisbane at 3 am on the 28th. This stop the only cargo they were taking on was the baggage carried by the soldiers due to board after breakfast. These men were destined to boost the numbers of Darwin’s defenders. It was almost 9 pm by the time Neptuna managed to get away again sailing out passed Moreton Island into the Pacific. From Brisbane sailing north, Neptuna would be under the threat of Japanese submarines so the ship would be escorted for most of the way.

6 February 1942 – Thursday Island

It was a scary business sailing north beyond the Australian mainland into the darkness of a tropical night and the radio receiver beeping out the report of an enemy submarine operating close by. As Neptuna changed course to dock at Thursday Island her escort broke away into the night to investigate handing over responsibility for the ship to HMAS Townsville for the final leg to Darwin. Submarines weren’t the only problem either. Only two days earlier a report had come through over the radio of an RAAF Catalina shot down by Japanese aircraft near Bathurst Island.

12 February 1942 – Darwin

Neptuna ended her voyage at 8:42 am on 12 February and the following day began to offload her passengers by boat from the anchorage in Darwin Harbour. As soon as the bridge telegraphed ‘finished with engines’ the engine room began preparations for some urgent maintenance on the port engine. One of the pistons needed replacing and since the ship would be at anchor for several days waiting to be unloaded there was no better opportunity. For everybody except the engineers, the next few days would be relaxing. Ship’s maintenance during the day with the evenings spent playing cards and when it joined the ships anchored in Darwin Harbour, listening to the sound of the band aboard the cruiser USS Houston at anchor close by.

The last time Houston’s band had played formally had only been a few days earlier at Tjilatjap, on the southern coast of Java. That occasion had been more sombre as the ship farewelled 48 of her crew after a disastrous encounter with Japanese aircraft in the Makassar Strait. Despite Houston being equipped with the best anti-aircraft guns available, these were next to useless. In its first action, most of the ship’s anti-aircraft shells turned out to be duds. Throughout the battle, Houston successfully evaded all except the last bomb dropped at her. The hit killed 48 men, wounded 20 more, and started an extremely serious fire. With her forward anti-aircraft director jury-rigged back into service Houston, although her after turret was demolished, was otherwise seaworthy and was still the most powerful ship available in the area and she was sent to Darwin for escort duty.

15 February 1942 – Darwin

Even as the British were surrendering Singapore on 15 February a convoy of Australian and American transport ships left Darwin carrying the Australian 2/4th Pioneer Battalion and an Australian anti-tank troop along with the 148th US Field Artillery Regiment plus all their equipment and vehicles. The convoy was escorted by the USS Houston and the destroyer USS Peary together with two Australian destroyers, HMAS Swan and HMAS Warrego. As the convoy was cruising past Bathurst Island a Kawanishi flying boat flew into view and changed its course for a closer look while staying out of range of the convoy’s anti-aircraft batteries. For 3 hours the Japanese aircraft shadowed the convoy.

In Darwin, two repaired Kittyhawks were taking off bound for Timor when the radio message from USS Houston requesting fighter support came through. One had already taken off, but the message was passed to the second which immediately headed to the convoy’s aid alone. The Kittyhawk and the Kawanishi met somewhere over the Timor Sea and immediately opened fire on each other. The Kittyhawk went down in flames but the Kawanishi was also badly hit. The flying boat was able to make a softer landing into the sea with five out of the nine crew surviving to drift in a life raft for five days before reaching Melville Island.

Despite the loss of the Kawanishi, the message had been passed to the Japanese command. Early the next morning the convoy was attacked by a flight of Japanese bombers. With the protective cover provided by its escorts, the convoy escaped relatively unscathed, a fierce anti-aircraft barrage convincing the Japanese that it was no easy target. With its ammunition severely depleted the convoy was ordered back to Darwin.

18 February 1942 – Darwin

The American warships were in a hurry to get back to work. No sooner than they’d arrived in Darwin, Houston and Peary had been refuelled and were heading back out to sea. But Swan and Warrego needed the ammunition that was still in the holds of Neptuna. When the radio office received a message from the Naval Command that barges would be coming to unload some of the cargo the hatches were prepared, and steam was built up to provide power to the ship’s winches. As the barges pulled alongside all was ready but for some unknown reason, the Navy decided not to proceed. They would have to wait for the following morning when Neptuna could be moved to the wharf for unloading. The receipt of a further radio message on Neptuna to make for the wharf at dawn was a concern with one of her engines still out of action but she could still manoeuvre with the other.

19 February 1942 – Darwin  

HMAS Wato was a tugboat, built in 1904 originally for the Adelaide Steamship Company. Wato served with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean in WW1 and was then brought to the port of Fremantle. Requisitioned again on 11 May 1941, she had the distinction of being the oldest ship to serve with the RAN during WW2.

At 8:00 am HMAS Wato helped Neptuna limp to the outside berth of the wharf with her one operating engine. Already on the inside berth, the Barossa waited for her own cargo to be unloaded, but just then Neptuna’s cargo of munitions had to be given priority. Almost as soon as Neptuna had been tied to the wharf HMAS Swan moved into position with both ships stern-to-stern. HMAS Warego drifted nearby about 100 metres away waiting to move in when Swan had finished. Even as the wharf labourers began discharging the general cargo onto the wharf. HMAS Swan’s working party under the supervision of a petty officer boarded the ship and started passing the high explosive anti-aircraft shells onto the Swan.

As soon as the labourers noticed the sailors the union delegate approached the Petty Officer demanding that the naval party cease passing the shells aboard Swan. The ammunition was cargo, and cargo discharge was the work of wharf labourers, not naval ratings. The Petty Officer told the delegate to get out of the way of his men, or they would toss him into the harbour. The waterside workers were annoyed by this, and seeing Neptuna’s cadets standing by, appealed to them for support. The cadets responded that they would assist the naval ratings in man-handling the wharfies over the side. At this stage of the confrontation, a sailor observed a formation of aircraft flying overhead and remarked that the Yanks had at last arrived. Another one said, "Look they are dropping leaflets."

It was almost 10 am, smoko time. Several wharf labourers had already moved to the shed near the turntable where the men took their breaks and hardly noticed the strange whining sound coming through the noises of the busy jetty. Almost immediately there was a huge explosion on the wharf forward of Neptuna. The ship, hit below the waterline, gave an enormous shudder and began taking in water. Another explosion blew the shed apart killing most of the men inside. The same bomb destroyed the bridge connecting the wharf to the shore and ruptured the refuelling line causing oil to gush into the water.

Eric Pollard had run down to the foyer with the other radio officers, Bob Davidson and Reg Vealle, as Japanese planes sprayed machine-gun bullets along the port and starboard sides. An explosion close by shook the officers gathered inside the saloon. A bomb had made a direct hit landing just forward of the smoking-room where 1st Officer Jack Gillies and 2nd Officer Jack Forman were sheltering. The bomb had struck just as the three radio officers had made it into what they thought was going to be the relative safety of the smoking room. All five men were killed instantly.

***

The MV Neptuna had been crewed by eighteen Australian officers, four cadets, and over one hundred Chinese sailors. Of these, ten of the Australian officers, one cadet and at least 25 of the Chinese crew died in the attack. More than 240 civilians and Australian and US service personnel were killed, and eight ships were sunk in Darwin Harbour.