THE LAST VOYAGE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1004, 20 December 1910, Page 5

THE LAST VOYAGE.

STORY OF. THE LOSS REVIEWED. The Waratah, a handsome specimen of tho shipbuilder's art, and less than a year old, sailed out of Sydney Harbour on her second and last homeward, voyage on. June 26 of last year, bound for London. She mado calls en route 'at Melbourne and Adelaide, leaving the firstnamed port on July 1, and the South Australian port .on July 7..' ~.,0n :tlle. Voyage across "the- Indian Ocean ,she encountered '.very, heavyljwtfathov,;con-.ditions.-,for four,hdaysi' ana,; Gpmwaijder 'Ilbery. remarked"to -Mr.. P; '.C..' Saunders, a' solicitor: of ' Melbourne, who "was a passenger to Durban, that "it was the worst weather the steamer had ever been iii, and that, she had behaved'splendidly." Mr. Morgan, ' another passenger from Australia, mado a . similar report. Durban was safely ! reached oii Sunday, July 25, one day. in advance of schedule time, and a number'-of passengers eniibarkedi- and disembarked. . Cargo ; M?as: also discharged and coal, taken in.. There was no coal above the. deck .when tho Waratah resumed her,voyage, on July SC., • j,"' Her Last Message. ' ; -..Ten hours after sailing.out, of, Dui:ban> Harbour, the Waratah was sighted by ■ the, steamer Clan Macintyre, bound from' New Zealand .ports, via Durban, to' Loudon. ' The 'Waratah wris signalled.on the, starboard beam.at o,o'clock on the morning of July 27. She was then •. proceeding fairly closo to the shoro at about 12$ knots, the Clan Macintyre making about' 10. The Waratah was seen, to be ; .steering a-little'more''southerly thin the other vessel,- or.-takipg a .course further : frqm-ishore.i .■' . (A ; asked,.. "Wliat "ship" l iW'. 1 ysu¥"- I'he answer came, "Tho Waratah, for -' London." ; •Thfc. Clan M&cintyre' replied, "I am, the Clan Macintyre, for . London. What weather had you, from Australia?" Back came tho signalj "Strong southwest and southerly winds'across." , The Clan Macintyre upon this signalled, Thanks; good-bye; a pleasant passage." And then came, this final message.from the missing ship:,"Thanks; the same-to you. Good-bye. ' '

The Storm.- ;■7. It -was on tho. following day—July 28— that a great cyclonic tempest swept the coast of South Africa. During the whole day the wind blew from AV.S.W. to W., with squalls of hurricano force. A tremendous sea was running, .rising in a wall-like formation, owing to the current being against the wind. ■: |r Mariners who; experienced. the, ..storm mute- m;, describing;-it. as; onerafc'.cfceptional violenoe. > It . .was •; jiotperhaps spoken of as. the oh.record, but; it was Tegarded as the most violent tempest for some years. 1 ■ ■ ' . hurricane raged ' -with unabated fury about'ls hours, and right along ths coast of South-Africa the conditions rae dangerous. Of course, the wind was behind the "WaraUh, • "but ueverthcless she must ■ havo had a vei-y. rongh time. The gale moderated on the following day, and was ..succeeded by a fresh SO ml ■?,, 5' B a ' e ' a h'si' cross sea. vi, S 1^ 0 ' a vfsscl of 193" tons, left ■Natal" CO hours before the Waratah, and experienced a very rough passago down to Agulhas. There was. a continuous gale with terrific 1 seas; When off Danger 1 quit the ship was struck, by a ■ mountainous sea, and 30 tons of eoal'liad to be jettisoned. After l;hat tho weather became worse, and the vessel took 32 hours to make the_ passage from Agulhas to Cape Town, which" is usually done in 11-hours.; &o tempestuous was it that the captain; .tried; to put into .-Strums-Bay, but on account of the thickness of- the weather could not get in. The gale was evidently of a cyclonic character.

What the Harlqw :Saw. ' About thi? time a. Harrison' l'ilier was making her way up the coast to Durban. Tho captain of ihc. Harlow, on arriving some weeks, later, heard' that the ivaratah was missing and then stated that on_ the evening of July 27, when l f™ 18 hours but from Durban, ho sighted a steamer smoking fiercely. Sho appeared to the captain of tho Harlow to bo-going ranch: faster than bis own T-"?- ! ' i, a • co,1 ! ( ' sec her red light distinctly and two masthead lights. According to this oaptain's evidence, "tho vessel exploded twice about half an hour after lie. had Sighted her, and there was an interval., of only a few seconds between the explosions, which threw a flash of light Of about 300 ft. the first time and about 1000 ft. the second time. No signals vfero shown to him. Tlie Captain estimate that at the time of tho alleged explosions the vessel was only three miles from Cape Hermes, and ho considers that tho wreck would lie in about 20 fathoms of' water between that cape and ' St. John's River '.(latitude .'12.38 S., Miigitudo 29.551 E.). Ho did. not, he stated, report what he had seen on arriving at Durban .as ho had not. heard of tny vessel being missing and also as he and his chief officer had had a difference as to what they had seen was a bush fire. -

A Farmer's Story. London farmer, Mr. Beet, also ucscljljctl uhnt lie look to bo signals from 'ft vessel in'distress, on July 20. .Mr. Beat's Story '.was to the effect that on that evening ho saw. a-large steamer at a, point opposite Covo Rock, and'about six miles out to soa,.'steaming ■ slowly westwards After proceeding, some 10 miles along the ■ usual trade route she "stopped, blew &ff steam', and : finally appeared to'be drifting back towards East London, along' a two miles nearer in. shore, rolling heavily, jmd showing signals of!_ distress. ,On

reaching a point' near C»ove Rock n ,v Cl ' tar course outwards, and liiisilly disappeared. Later in tlio evening, he saw what might' have been 1 signals, bf distress or flashes of lightning. ; On wing questioned- several times, Mr. Beet stated. positively, that it was on July •-G that he saw the distress signals. Tho Waratah sailed.from Dnrhan *on that date and could not possibly have been l. 11 ,," 10 . v icihity of East London until the iollowing day. Mr. Jieet Was corroborated-by four independent witnesses, and another account by Mr. Maclean of the rockets would peetu to lit in with that'"portion'of Mr. Beet s story regarding what lio thought was lightning flashes/ . • •

MAGIC OF THE METACENTRE AN INTERESTING. STUDY. t Interesting, indeed, is tho.. metacentre lu . s "jps» - that per.tains to it, and the foljowing diagrams may help to make tho subject fjoar.. In those diaSrßMs the metacentre is marked as "Tlid Vv onder Point," the ship's centro of gravity as "Point Stolid," and .the centre of buoyancy as "Point Noutral." It is round "Point Neutral" that, the -various forces play, ami;it is through the metacentre and the-'ceritre; of gravity'that they act. The arrows iii the, diagrams show whjeh way these fortes,are directed. The righting force of the sea acts straight upwards through the metacentre; and tho weight of the ship, acts straight downwards through the centre of,gravity, flie centre ol buoyancy is'the pivb'ti jf is the. aim in marine architecture to keep tho metacentre always above/the centre of, gravity. As long as this is done the ship has:a certain, amount-of-righting power when ; ,shc.;heols over to the sea.