After finding HMAS Sydney in 2008, shipwreck hunter David Mearns has positively identified the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, more than 80 kilometres off Brisbane, with irrefutable high definition video footage.

For filming the Centaur, Mr Mearns sent a submarine robot down to identify three distinguishable features: the ship's bright red cross, a distinctive star on the bow, and a corroded identification number 47.

''It's a great relief for everybody, the sonar images were very clear to us… but we knew we needed to bring back conclusive video-graphic proof,'' Mr Mearns said.

The mission, which began at 8.30pm on Saturday, was not exactly smooth sailing, with the robot submarine, Remora 3, experiencing a number of mechanical problems. But eventually, the wreck was discovered, and Mr Mearns and his crew became the first people to witness the Centaur in 67 years.

Remora 3 then spent more than an hour successfully filming the wreck, which was split in two and leaning to port at 25 degrees.

Mr Mearns described the stern of the ship as very badly damaged and little identifiable proof was taken from that section: ''It's as we would've expected from a ship that had suffered a direct torpedo hit then had a cataclysmic explosion afterwards, and then sunk very fast, more than 2000 metres.'' .

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