A piece of awning canvas which memorialises the names of known survivors who went through the infamous Batavia Bicycle Prisoner of War Camp afterHMAS Perth (I) was sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait was presented to the RAN Heritage Centre yesterday.Ms Sarah Seymour gifted the canvas to the Perth Association, which in turn presented it to the Naval Heritage Collection where it will now be preserved. Survivors Gordon Steele, John Wood and Frank McGoven watched on as the parchment was presented to CDRE Andrew Smith, RAN who accepted it on behalf of the Navy, and saw for the first time their names recorded.
The canvas is muster of names which was produced between 1942 and 1943 as testimony that 309 of Perth’s ship’s company survived the sinking of the cruiser and were interred in the Batavia Bicycle POW camp in modern day Jakarta. The canvas records not only names of known survivors, but a legend of ticks and crosses which shows when people were moved to other camps.
HMAS Perth under the command of Captain Hector Waller, DSO & 2 Bars, RAN was sunk with USS Houston in the early hours of 1 March 1942 during a battle with the Japanese in the Sunda Strait. Perth inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese and fought until all her ammunition was spent before being torpedoed four times. Perth lost 353 of her 618 crew in the engagement.
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