100 years since SS Waratah disappeared off the Wild Coast

The Waratah 1908 - 29 July 1909

The Waratah 1908 - 29 July 1909Source: Daily Dispatch

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.

According to Dispatch archives, the 10 000 ton ship passed along the Transkei coast on July 28, 1909 after stopping off in Durban the previous day.

It was heading to London and would have stopped over in Cape Town before setting sail on the high seas. A Dispatch report from July 1971 said: “Two people had disembarked in Durban – one to find a job and the other after he dreamt that the ship would sink – and after being spotted by two other ships along the Transkei coast, the Waratah disappeared in what was to become ‘one of the most baffling nautical mysteries of all time’.”

;As it sailed past the Transkei coast, between the mouths of the Bashee and Xora rivers, the ship is said to have encountered bad weather and battled to sail against high winds, a combination of tide and turbulent ocean swell.

Carrying provisions on board to last a year, the Waratah is said to have fallen victim to a freak wave, capsized and been sucked to the ocean floor with all aboard. In the 100 years since it disappeared various theories have tried to explain its demise.

Numerous attempts to salvage it and a few sightings have been reported, with none proving to be true. A world genealogy website reports initial theories suggested it remained adrift for a while and was carried away from the southern African shoreline and drifted into the Antarctic Circle where passengers and crew died of cold and starvation, the ship itself eventually being crushed to pieces in the southern ice.

“Another possibility was that the ship blew up because of an explosion due to heating of her bunker coal, bringing a quick and painful death to all on board,” the website reports.

Agreeing with the theory that the ship went down in a storm, Smit said debris wasn’t found because everything was secured tightly when the storm hit.

He said the ship was either deliberately steered away from the coast to avoid it bashing onto rocks, or it was driven away from the shore by the current, and swept past the southern African tip away from the coastline. “Since they found the Titanic, why can’t they find the Waratah,” Smit asked. - By NTANDO MAKHUBU

More info: Wikipedia

Comments

I have a connection to the SS Warata. A Christening mug for my father was in the personal possession of the Ship's Captain having been given to him to bring to the UK, by a relative of my grandmother's in Australia. I have always been told that the mug is in the Captain's Safe, but I can't confirm that. My guess is that the mug has my father's name (Philip Buckley Secretan) inscribed on it. 3000 meters is extremely deep, but if modern technology was able to recover any "bits", and if they happened to include the Safe with my father's mug in it, I would be awfully pleased to get possession of it - a bit of a forlorn hope, I freely admit! Is there any way I can follow what is happening? With kind regards, Philip A.D. (Paddy) Secretan

paddy theres a good chance we will get the mug the wreck is in about 150 m of water we will keep you posted regards david

Well, well, well! My old man will be smiling up above at that piece of information. When will all the diving be done? I'm pretty busy until after a big conference I run on aquaculture next May, but if there was anything going on after that,I'd be very tempted to come out with my wife just to see what's happening. Please keep me posted. I am now going to search for a letter that I think I have, which refers to the Mug and the fact that it was lost on the Waratah. I will let you know if I find anything. Best regards to everyone involved in this venture. Paddy Secretan

What were Sawyer's EXACT words regarding the Waratah? I have never actually read them - he said she was 'top heavy' and then gave a testimony about a "man with a bloody sword." But this I found on Wikipedia, and too much brains, people on Wikipedia aren't blessed with. Any help is greatly appreciated.

sawyer sent a telegram to his wife when he landed in durban saying he thought the waratah was top heavy thats why he got off he testified in the court of enquiry that the vessels bow ploughed into a big wave and did not rise to the followig wave one of the passengers who were with him confirmed they had this conversation i think the passenger also got off at durban regards david pells

Mr Ebsworth was in fact the passenger who commented that the Waratah put her bow into oncoming waves rather than rising over them. He was lost with the Waratah.

I believe the vessel had structural variations in the holds where extra cabins were constructed to cater for emigrants proceeding to Australia.This extra "empty"space would reinforce the theory that a capsized ship would drift far further with the "negative buoyancy"created by the reduction in actual hold capacity. Its a pity the ships plans are not available so that a Naval Architect could put this "negative Buoyancy"to the test. Theories are a "dime a dozen"but only facts will settle the mystery. I still think the hull drifted far further South,than we could imagine. Closer to East London as I intimated in my last Gmail.

the plans are available

Just wondering why, with all the eyewitness accounts of her going into a wave, then foundering, why no submersible has concentrated a search pattern where she was seen going under?

Hello all! I have come across the following information, although I cannot confirm it to be true. On October 2, 1947 an extraterrestrial craft landed in Illichivsk Odessa, Ukraine. Two days later 12 sailors on a fishing boat disappeared. In 1982 one of the missing sailors, Mr. Kyrylo, in 1947 only 16 years old showed up in Maardu, Estonia. He reported that he had been ‘In the Moon’. He died in 1983 from a self-inflicted wound. On his chest he carved (with a knife) the following: “SS Waratah…they are still waiting…” Make of that what you will.

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