This is not very well known but 79 years ago to the day the Japanese cargo ship O’Sullivan Maru made a navigational error on its way to the Dutch Indies and ended up on an Australian reef in the remote Torres straight islands inNorth Queensland. Ironically the same place were a number of Dutch VOC ships disappeared in the 1600s.
The crew tried to make it to the beach but many drowned or ended up being attacked by sharks and closer to the beach they had to deal with The biggest Crocodiles in the World, the infamous Ozzie salties (saltwater crocodiles). (A partisan go salties from me here 
sorry for that).
However the 30 so who made it too the beach couldn’t find much edible tucker(food) as most of its is poisonous after the tried to shoot the Torres straight Islanders they obviously stopped any attempts to help them an vanished in the jungle. These Melanesians are the last people in the World you want to piss off.
Local legends say the mobilized the animal spirits which could be true as most if not all of the Japanese suffered from, the poisonous snakes, Cassowaries with their vicious claws, Portuguese sea things and the large population of the deadly drop bears jumping on people from trees didn’t help. Even frikking Steve Irwin avoided this area but maybe that was also because of the ban of photography, even now Australian TV programs contain specific warnings for Torres straits Islanders that pictures might be of dead relatives.
If it is not in the upcoming weekend episode my out of the foxhole question is about the latest research on this admittedly ghastly episodes. It was sad for the crew. Although a bigger part of me is siding with the locals and Ozzie nasties.
Chewie
an enriching vocalisation on this great forum! It gives me hope to see that some dutchies are giving this wonderful platform of history colour and perfume 
