SS Waratah

The Waratah was a steam ship that disappeared on the journey from Durban to Cape Town in July 1909 before the South African coast. The fate of the ship is still unclear. It is believed that the Waratah went down in a storm. There were today found no remains.

There were several attempts to locate the wreck. The South African NUMA ( South Africa National Underwater and Marine Agency ) reported in 1987 that they had discovered the ship 10 km off the coast in 2001 but it turned out that it was another ship, the Nailsea Meadow, sunk in World War II. The South African Emlyn Brown, the head of NUMA, who sought for decades after the wreck was, 2004.

The Facts

The Waratah, a 140 meter long, 18 meter wide and 9,340 GRT large steamship was built in 1908 by a shipyard in Glasgow ( Scotland) and the flagship of the famous Blue Anchor Line should be. The Waratah should serve as a passenger and cargo ship to Australia. The ship could reach with his two four-cylinder steam engines, a top speed of 13.5 knots (25 km / h). Its name was derived from the flower Waratah, which is the symbol of the Australian state of New South Wales.

The ship sailed in 1908 in its maiden voyage from London to Australia. The journey was easy. Subsequently, the Waratah 1909 by Australia should go back to South Africa to London. She left Durban on 26 July 1909, 92 passengers, 119 crew members and more than 10,000 tons of various cargo. Your captain, Joshua E. Ilbery, held for a seaworthy ship, maybe a little topp -heavy and with a penchant for " lurching and stalling ". One of the witnesses for an incorrect trim of the vessel on her maiden voyage to Australia by Nobel Laureate William Henry Bragg, a passenger. The reports on the instability of the ship, however, are contradictory, as evidenced in the official investigation. A slight Topplastigkeit was then in passenger ships not unusual because of the slower rolling.

The Waratah was seen on 27 July at 9.30 by the Clan McIntyre, in the course of the day, drastically deteriorating weather with wind speeds of around 50 knots and waves up to 9 m in height. In poor visibility the ship was seen again in the evening from the Guelph (but was the third officer only the final letters of the name TAH in the exchange of light signals seen ) and possibly from Harlow. This saw a steamer, the 10 nautical mile struggling under heavy smoke behind the Harlow against the waves, eventually by 20 clock twice flash near the position of the ship whose lights were then no longer be seen. The flash was given by the captain of Harlow initially for fireplaces on the coast and paid no further attention and also wearing nothing a logbook. Upon his arrival in the Philippines, however, the captain spoke against a Lloyd's agent by an explosion and held the smoke for the fire.

As the Waratah did not arrive in Cape Town after their three day journey on 29 July 1909, it initially held no possible that this modern ship foundered. It had indeed been a storm, but other ships had mastered the same route. Wreckage and bodies were not sighted and driven no lifeboats ashore. Therefore, It was assumed that the Waratah had suffered a mechanical breakdown and now drifted around. The ship's radio was still in its infancy, and the Waratah was not equipped with this modern technology to possibly summon assistance.

On July 31, 1909, two cruisers of the Royal Navy took up the search, but returned ten days later back empty-handed. The Australian government chartered a month the search ship Severn, which also gave up after 4,345 kilometers without result. The steamer Sabine sought from September 11 to December 7 in 1909 put in these 88 days back 22.5 thousand kilometers and even grazed the foothills of the Antarctic. As still lacked any sign of life, the Waratah was finally announced on December 15, 1909 at Lloyd's as missing.

The coast between Durban and Cape Town is known for her stormy, unpredictable weather and turbulent seas. When a south-west gale whips up the flow at Cape Agulhas, 18 foot waves are not uncommon. Many ships have been lost or damaged in these waters.

Rumors and false reports

Pretty soon shot rumors and false reports from the ground. They ranged from a bottle of stranded in Australia about allegedly by African tribes near the coast reared white children to men who identified themselves as survivors and wanted to sell her story to the press. In addition, clairvoyant pretended to make the position of the wreck. In any case, remained and remains the Waratah one of the unsolved mysteries of maritime history. Their fate is unclear to this day. It seems almost certain that the ship went down in bad weather. Whether the cause is ultimately a lack of stability, structural defects or a so-called monster wave, will probably never be resolved.

Official announcement

A commission was in 1910/11 in London, the Waratah had indeed been ready to sail, but suddenly capsized and lost in the stormy sea. The Commission recommended further studies on the stability of ocean-going ships.