Australian Defence personnel who served on Australian Hospital Ship Centaur have been honoured during a touching At-Sea Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance off the south east Queensland coast.

Over 320 relatives of those who perished aboard AHS Centaur, survivor Mr Martin Pash, and military and political dignitaries attended the service held on HMAS Manoora.

Family members had the opportunity to scatter ashes and lay wreaths into the Coral Sea, directly two kilometres above the final resting place of the ill fated ship.

AHS Centaur was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on 14 May 1943. Of the 332 people on board, including merchant seamen, hospital staff and army nurses, only 64 survived.

The shipwreck of AHS Centaur, discovered on 20 December 2009, is under protection of the Historic Shipwrecks Act.