The hospital ships of Australia were a number of converted civilian ships used for medical services during the Second World War. They were all staffed primarily by the Army Medical staff.
The ships fell into two groups: Australian ships and Dutch ships transferred to the Australian Government. The Dutch ships retained their original Dutch officers and Javanese sailors, with replacements from an international pool being added as necessary, and they also continued to sail under the Dutch flag.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, australian, hospital and/or ships:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Lastly, his tomb
Shall list and founder in the troughs of grass
And none shall speak his name.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“Each Australian is a Ulysses.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“The sun his hand uncloses like a statue,
Irrevocably: thereby such light is freed
That all the dingy hospital of snow
Dies back to ditches.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1919)