SS Waratah

The "SS Waratah", sometimes referred to as "Australia's Titanic", was a 500 foot steamer. In July 1909, the ship, en route from Durban to Cape Town, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard. The disappearance of the ship remains one of the most baffling nautical mysteries of all time. To this day no trace of the ship has ever been found.

The "Waratah" 1908 - 29 July 1909

The "Waratah" was a steamer, built by Barclay Curle & Co in Whiteinch, Glasgow (Scotland) and destined to be the flagship of the Blue Anchor Line. It was named "Waratah" after the emblem flower of New South Wales, Australia. The ship was supposed to serve as a passenger and cargo liner to Australia. It had 100 first class cabins, eight state rooms and a salon whose panels depicted its namesake flower, as well as a luxurious 'music lounge' complete with a minstrel's gallery. As well as these luxurious quarters, "Waratah" was intended to serve the strong emigrant trade from Europe to Australia. On the outward journey her cargo holds would be converted into large dormitories capable of holding nearly 700 steerage passengers. On the return journey she would be laden with goods, mainly foodstuffs. She was fitted out for carrying refrigerated cargo, could carry food and stores for a year at sea, and had an on-board desalination plant which could produce 5,500 gallons (25,000 litres) of fresh water a day. She did not carry a radio, but this was not unusual for the time. [Harris, 1989, p.118]

On 5 November 1908, the "Waratah" set sail on her maiden voyage from London, England, with 689 passengers in third class accommodation and 67 first class passengers. [Harris, 1989, p.119] Her captain was Joshua E. Ilbery, a sailor with 30 years nautical experience. The subsequent inquiry into her sinking raised some disputed reports of instability on this voyage. On the ship's return to England there was some discussion about stowage between the owners and the builders.

On 27 April 1909, the "Waratah" set out on her second trip to Australia. This was uneventful and on 1 July 1909 she set out from Melbourne on the return journey. She was bound for the South African ports of Durban and Cape Town and was then to return to London. The "Waratah" reached Durban, where one passenger, Claude Sawyer, an engineer and experienced sea traveller, got off the ship and sent the following cable to his wife in London:

"Thought Waratah top-heavy, landed Durban"

The "Waratah" left Durban on 26 July with 211 passengers and crew. On 27 July, it passed the "Clan McIntyre". Later that day, the weather deteriorated quickly (as is common in that area). A wind gusting to 50 knots (90 km/h) combined against the tide and ocean swell to build waves up to 30 feet (9 m). That evening the Union-Castle Liner "Guelph" passed a ship and exchanged signals by lamp, but due to the bad weather and poor visibility was only able to identify the last three letters of her name as "T-A-H."

The same evening, a ship called the "Harlow" saw a large steamer coming up behind her, working hard into the heavy seas and making a great deal of smoke, enough to make her captain wonder if the steamer was on fire. When darkness fell, the crew of the "Harlow" could see the steamer's running lights approaching, but still 10-12 miles behind them, when there were suddenly two bright flashes from the vicinity of the steamer and the lights vanished. The mate of the "Harlow" thought the flashes were brush fires on the shore (a common phenomenon in the area at that time of year). The captain agreed and did not even enter the events in the log - only when he learnt of the disappearance of the "Waratah" did he think the events significant. [Harris, 1989, p.122+138]

The "Waratah" was possibly seen off the Transkei coast (East Coast of South Africa) making its way back to Durban when it sank. The eye-witness of the sinking was a police officer who patrolled the area on horseback. He apparently reported the incident in the occurrence book on his return to the station. What is known of him is that he was related (uncle) to the late Noel Staples Martin - to whom he passed on the information verbally.

The "Waratah" was expected to reach Cape Town on 29 July 1909. It never reached its destination, and no trace of the ship was ever found.

The Search for the "Waratah"

Initially, it was believed that the "Waratah" was still adrift. The Royal Navy deployed the cruisers "HMS Pandora" and "HMS Forte" (and later the "HMS Hermes") to search for the "Waratah". The "Hermes", near the area of the last sighting of the "Waratah", encountered waves so large and strong that she strained her hull and had to be placed in dry dock on her return to port. [Harris, 1989, p.125] On 10 August 1909, a cable from South Africa reached Australia, reading

"Blue Anchor vessel sighted a considerable distance out. Slowly making for Durban. Could be the Waratah."

The Chair of the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament halted proceedings to read out the cable, saying: "Mr Speaker has just informed me that he has news on reliable authority that the SS Waratah has been sighted making slowly towards Durban." [ "Hansard, House of Representatives" p2228 10 August 1909 ] In Adelaide, the town bells were rung. However, it turned out that the ship in question had not been the "Waratah".

In September 1909, the Blue Anchor Line chartered the Union Castle ship "Sabine" to search for the "Waratah". The search of the "Sabine" covered 14,000 miles, but yielded no result.

1910: relatives of the "Waratah" passengers chartered the "Wakefield" and conducted a search for three months, which again proved unsuccessful. The official enquiry into the fate of the "Waratah" was held at London in December 1910. Among others, Claude Sawyer gave testimony on that occasion.

1925: Lt. D. J. Roos of the South African Air Force, reported that he had spotted a wreck while he was flying over the Transkei coast. It was his opinion that this was the wreck of the "Waratah".

1977: a wreck was located off the Xora River Mouth. Several investigations into this wreck, in particular under the leadership of Emlyn Brown took place. It is however widely believed today that the wreck off the Xora River Mouth was that of one of many ships which had fallen victim to German U Boats during the Second World War. It has proven particularly difficult to explain why the "Waratah" should be found so far to the north of her estimated position. Further attempts to locate the "Waratah" took place in 1991, 1995 and 1997.

1999: reports reached the newspapers that the "Waratah" had been found 10 km off the eastern coast of South Africa (Addley). A sonar scan conducted by Emlyn Brown's team had indeed located a wreck whose outline seemed to match that of the "Waratah". In 2001, however, a closer inspection revealed differences between the "Waratah" and the wreck. It appears that the team had in fact found the "Nailsea Meadow", a ship which had been sunk in the Second World War.

2004: Emlyn Brown, who had by now spent 22 years looking for the "Waratah" declared that he was giving up the search: "I've exhausted all the options. I now have no idea where to look".

The Inquiry and the ship's stability

The Board of Trade inquiry into the disappearance quickly came to focus on the supposed instability of the "Waratah". [Harris, 1989, p.129] Evidence was greatly hampered by the lack of any survivors from the ship's final voyage (other than the small number, including Claude Sawyer, who had disembarked in Durban). Most evidence came from passengers and crew from "Waratah's" maiden voyage, her builders and those who had handled her in port.

The expert witnesses all agreed that the "Waratah" was designed and built properly and sailed in good condition. [Harris, 1989, p.130] She had passed numerous inspections, including those by her builders, her owners, the Board of Trade and two by Lloyds of London, who gave her the classification "+100 A1" - their top rating. [Harris, 1989, p.130 + p.118 for Lloyds rating] granted only to ships which Lloyds had inspected and assessed throughout the design, construction, fitting out and sea trials, on top of the two valuations and inspections Lloyds had made of the completed "Waratah".

Many witnesses testified that the ship had a very long roll (a reluctance to right herself after leaning into a swell). One passenger on her maiden voyage said that when in the Southern Ocean she developed a list to starboard to such an extent that water would not run out of the baths, and she held this list for several hours before rolling upright. This passenger, Professor William Bragg, a member of The Royal Society, had a knowledge of the workings of stability, and concluded that the ship's metacentre was just below her centre of gravity. When slowly rolled over towards one side, she reached a point of equilibrium and would stay leaning over until a shift in the sea or wind pushed her upright. [Harris, 1989, p.131]

Other passengers and crew members commented on her lack of stability, and those responsible for handling the ship in port said she was so unstable when unladen that she could not be moved in harbour without ballast. [Harris, 1989, p.130+140]

However, for every witness of this opinion, another could be found who said the opposite. Both former passengers and crew members (ranking from stokers to a deck officer) said the "Waratah" was perfectly stable, with a comfortable, easy roll. [ Harris, 1989, p.133] Many said they felt she was especially stable. The ship's builders produced calculations to prove that even with a load of coal on her deck (that several witnesses claim she was carrying when she left Durban) she was not top heavy. [Harris, 1989, p.130]

The inquiry was unable to make any conclusions from this mixed and contradictory evidence. It did not blame the Blue Anchor Line, but did make several negative comments in regard to the company's practices in determining the performance and seaworthiness of its new ships. [Harris, 1989, p.141] Correspondence between Captain Ilbery and the line's managers show he commented on numerous details about the ship's fixtures, fittings, cabins, public rooms, ventilation and other areas, but failed to make any mention at the basic level of the "Waratah's" seaworthiness and handling. Equally, the company never asked Captain Ilbery about these areas. [Harris, 1989, p.139-141] This led many to speculate that Ilbery had concerns about the "Waratah" and its stability, but deliberately kept such doubts quiet. However, it is also possible that neither he nor the Blue Anchor Line felt it necessary to cover such areas, because the "Waratah" was heavily based on a previous (and highly successful) Blue Anchor ship, the "Geelong", and so the "Waratah's" handling was assumed to be the same.

The inquiry did deduce that the 3 ships that saw ships that could be the "Waratah" on the evening of the 26th of July could not all have seen her given the distance between them and the time of the sightings unless the "Waratah" had reached Bashee River and exchanged signals with the "Clan MacIntyre", but then turned around and headed back to Durban, in order to be sighted by the "Harlow".

It is certainly true that many passenger ships of the period were made slightly top-heavy. This produced a long, comfortable but unstable roll, which many passengers preferred to a short, jarring but stable roll. Many trans-Atlantic liners were designed this way, and after a few voyages those operating them learnt how to load, ballast and handle them correctly and the ships completed decades of trouble-free service. It may have been the "Waratah's" misfortune to encounter an unusually heavy storm or freak wave on only her second voyage, before she could be trimmed correctly. This slightly top-heavy design could also account for the strongly opposed opinions of witnesses about whether or not the ship felt stable. An inexperienced or uninformed person on the ship might conclude that the long, slow, soft roll of the ship felt comfortable and safe, whilst someone with more sea-going experience or a knowledge of ship design would have felt that the same motion was unstable. In regards to the witnesses claiming the "Waratah's" instablity in port when unladen, this may have been true. However, virtually all ocean-going ships (which are, after all, designed to carry a large weight of cargo) need to be ballasted to some extent when moved unladen, so the "Waratah" was certainly not unique in this respect. It should be noted that the witnesses would have been well aware of this - the fact that they still came forward to attest that they regarded the "Waratah" as dangerously unstable in these conditions does suggest that the ship was exceptional in some respect.

The "Waratah" was also a mixed-use ship. Passenger liners, with a small cargo volume relative to their gross tonnage had fairly constant and predictable ballasting requirements. A ship like the "Waratah" would carry a wide range of cargos, and even different cargos on the same voyage, making the matter of ballasting both more complex and more crucial. [Harris, 1989, p.146 (applies to whole paragraph above)] When she disappeared, the "Waratah" was carrying amongst her cargo a load of 1,000 tons of lead concentrate. This may have suddenly shifted, causing the ship to capsize. [Harris, 1989]

Other Theories

Freak wave

The most popular theory advanced to explain the disappearance of the "Waratah" appears to be that of a 'freak wave' also known as a rogue wave in the ocean off the South African coast. Such waves are known to be common in that area of the ocean. It is most likely that the "Waratah", with what seems to be marginal stability and already ploughing through a severe storm, was hit by a giant wave. This either rolled the ship over outright or stove-in her cargo hatches, filling the holds with water and pulling the ship down almost instantly. If the ship capsized or rolled over completely, any buoyant debris would be trapped under the wreck, explaining the lack of any bodies or wreckage in the area. This theory was given credibility through a paper by Professor Mallory of the University of Cape Town (1973) which suggested that waves of up to 20 meters in height did occur between Richards Bay and Cape Agulhas. This theory also stands up if the "Waratah" is assumed to have been stable and seaworthy - several ships around the Cape of Good Hope have been severely damaged and nearly sunk by freak waves flooding their holds. Throughout the world ships such as the Melanie Schulte (a German ship lost in the Atlantic [Harris, 1989, p.149] and the MV Derbyshire (a British bulk carrier sunk in the Pacific) have suddenly broken up and sunk within minutes in extreme weather.

Some have also suggested that instead of sinking, the ship was incapacitated by a freak wave and, having lost her rudder and without any means of contacting land, was swept southwards towards Antarctica to either be lost in the open ocean or foundering on Antarctica itself. No evidence except the absence of the wreck supports this theory, however.

Whirlpool

Both at the time of the disappearance and since, several people have suggested that the "Waratah" was caught in a whirlpool created by a combination of winds, currents and a deep ocean trench, several of which are known to be off the southeast coast of Africa. This would explain the lack of wreckage, but there is no firm evidence that a whirlpool of sufficent strength to almost instantly suck down a 450-foot long ocean liner could be created as suggested. [Harris, 1989, p.147-9]

Explosion

Given the evidence from the officers of the "Harlow" (see above), it has been speculated that the "Waratah" was destroyed by a sudden explosion in one of her coal bunkers. Coal dust can certainly self-combust and in the right proportions of air be explosive. However, no single bunker explosion would cause a ship the size of the "Waratah" to sink instantly, without anyone being able to launch a lifeboat or raft, and without leaving any wreckage. [Harris, 1989, p.148]

Paranormal

Several supernatural theories were also put forward to explain the disappearance of the "Waratah". Claude Sawyer reported to the London inquiry that he had seen on three occasions the vision of a man "with a long sword in a peculiar dress. He was holding the sword in his right hand and it was covered in blood." This vision was one of the reasons why he decided not to continue the voyage on the "Waratah". [Harris, 1989, p.120]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle held a seance to establish how the "Waratah" could have vanished. Fact|date=August 2007

Methane upswelling

In recent years, incidents involving seabed methane upwellings have shown that it is quite possible for structures fully capable of floating on water, to readily sink in water whose density has been reduced by volumes of methane gas in bubble form. Methane is a product of the decomposition of dead living matter; on the seabed, at low temperatures and high pressures, the methane becomes a hydrated form, with a waxy layer which prevents the methane escaping, allowing it to accumulate. Undersea geological events can break the waxy layer, allowing huge volumes of the gas to escape, bubbling up to the surface. A Soviet oil rig was found to have finished up sixty feet below the seabed after one of these episodes.

Such an event could account for nothing to have ever been found of the "Waratah".

Others

In 1971, South African author Geoffrey Jenkins used the mystery as the background for his thriller Scend of the Sea; Emlyn Brown has said that it was the inspiration for his search for the ship.

David Willers theorized in his book "In Search Of The Waratah" that the "Waratah" was scuppered off the coast of Tierra Del Fuego as the crew tried to sail to safety.

Aftermath

The "Waratah's" disappearance, the inquiry and the criticism of the Blue Anchor Line generated much negative publicity. The line's ticket sales dropped severely, and coupled to the huge financial loss taken in the construction of the "Waratah" (which like many ships of the time, was under-insured), forced the company to sell its other ships to its main competitor P&O and declare voluntary liquidation in 1910. [http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/blueanchor.htm]

An Unlucky Name?

There were several other ships named "Waratah" in the late 19th century:

* In 1848, a ship of that name sank off Ushant.
* In 1887 two ships named "Waratah" sank near Sydney within months of each other.
* Yet another "Waratah" was lost in the Southern Ocean in 1894. [Harris, 1989, p.117]

References

*"The Loss of the Waratah", "The Times", 23 February 1911 p.24
*http://www.numa.net/press/011701.html
* [http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/cliffiesw/WCREW.HTM "Waratah" Crew list]
* [http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/cliffiesw/WARATAH.HTM "Waratah" Passenger list]
*Esther Addley, "Sea yields our Titanic's Resting Place", "The Weekend Australian", 17 July 1999
*Sue Blane, "The Week in Quotes", "Financial Times", 6 May 2004
*John Harris, "Without Trace - The Last Voyages of Eight Ships", 1989, Mandarin, ISBN 0-7493-0043-4
*Alan Laing, "Shipwreck expert abandons hunt for Clyde liner", "The Herald", 4 May 2004
*Tom Martin, "Almost a century after she vanished, scientists could now be on the verge of solving riddle of SS "Waratah"'s last voyage", "Sunday Express", 25 April 2004

Notes