Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954), Tuesday 9 February 1943, page 1


FLOATING SERVICE CLUB

A year ago last week, the first American Red Cross hospital ship to operate in this war, the Mactan, arriv ed in Australia. Now, at the end of last year, the has been convened into the first American Red Cross floating service club under the supervision of Mr. Irving Williams, of Patchogue. [Long Island, Field Supervisor tor the American Red Cross in the South and South-west Pacific. Mr. Williams was in charge of the ship when she sailed from Manila, to Australia with 224 seriously wounded American and Filipino soldlers. At the request of General MacArlhur the the 42-year-old Filipino freighter was taken over by the American Red Cross and within 48 hours converted Into a hospital ship, painted white and marked with red crosses. She slipped out of Manila by night, lit up by the flames of the burning city, to sail without proper charts— and only one jump ahead of the Japs— to Macassar, Timor, Darwin, and finally to an eastern Australian port. The arrival of the Mactan marked the arrival of the American Red Cross in Australia. At a re-unlon party held In Sydney, Wr. Williams paid a tribute to the welcome everyone aboard the Mactan had received from the Australian Red Cross on their arrival.