Woodman Point Quarantine Station

S/S NELLORE owned by the Eastern & Australian S.S. Co. was built in 1913 by Caird & Co. and weighted 6.942 tons and measured 450x52.2x30.6 ft; Her quadruple-expansion engines gave her 710 n.h.p..

The British steamer S/S Nellore was en route from Bombay to Sydney with passengers, when she was torpedoed, shelled and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-8 on June 29th, 1944, about 400 miles E. of the Chagos Archipelago. About 100 of her complement of 341 were lost.
NELLORE is hit by a torpedo and sinks at 07-51S, 75-20E. HMS LOSSIE rescues 112 crewmen, including the Captain.
Almost one month later and 2500 miles from the site of sinking, ten crewmen land at Sambavany, Madagascar. Of her 209 passengers and crew, 79 are lost and eleven taken prisoner by I-8.
There are discrepancies between certain reports regarding which submarine and its nationality can claim the credit of sinking of the " SS Tanda" and the "SS Nellore".

Certain reports state: U-181 torpedoed the SS Tanda and I-8, torpedoed the SS Nellore

Onboard the "SS Nellore" at that time were the survivors of the ships sunk by the raiders from Emirau Island.

From the Morning Bulletin. Wed. 24th April 1946

" It was indeed fortunate that none of the company's ships was in Japanese waters on December 7th 1941. The nearest, the Nellore, was in Hong Kong and, embarking passengers well above her usual numbers, she sailed for Australia and managed to get through unscathed. The ships were now transferred to the Australia-India run to augment a shipping service the requirements of which had grown with the progress of war, and it was whilst employed on this run that all three ships were lost by enemy action. The Nellore and Tanda continued in the trade until June 29 1944, when the Nellore, enroute form Bombay to Australia, was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean. The torpedoing took place at night without warning, and the Nellore was finished off by shelling from the submarine."

The Tanda was torpedoed and sunk 15th July 1944.
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