WARATAH INQUIRY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1025, 14 January 1911, Page 5

WARATAH INQUIRY.

—$ . '■WOULD BE SOMEBODY'S COFFIN.'" By Telcsrrapli—Press Association—Copyrisht. (l{ec. January 13; 9.20-p.m.) London, January 13. The Board of Trade inquiry into the loss of the Lund liner Waratah, 9000 tons, which disappeared between Durban and Capo Town in July, 1909, with 300 persons aboard, was continued today. jVir. J. Dickinson, Metropolitan Police Magistrate, presided, and had with him as assessors Admiral Davis, Commander Lyon (of tho Naval Heserve), Professor Walch, and Mr. J. H. Hallett. A letter was put in from Embrose, quartermaster on the Waratah's last voyage, to his parents describing the vessel as a splendid sea boat. Chapman, an engineer on the first voyage, declared tho Waratah was a steady, seaworthy stamp of steamer. On the first voyage the lifeboats were continually leaking • and "had to be patched. Ho left the shin at Sydney because ho was frightened" He would not have returned to her for a thousand pounds. The lifeboats were unfit for use. The chief officer had predicted to him that tho shin would be somebody's coffin. He had heard the boatswain say the boats wero unsafe, and that the ship would go to the bottom in a storm.

Pinel, carpenter's mate, stated that tho lifeboats v.'cre made of green wood. They opened out in the tropics, and it was impossible ■to repair them, there being no material aboard. -The Waratali rolled considerably. She was like a cork on the Water. Witnesses testified that the Waratab was a comfortable ship. One stated that during the maiden voyage ho thought the ship would not stand much punishment. However, he was not frightened. Mr. Scott, counsel for the owners, stated that when Lund and Sons sold out to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Sompany, some documents had been banded over. Some of them had probably been destroyed, resulting in confusion, which had been enhanced" by tho difficulty of tracing the documents. Reference was made to the statement that tho Waratah struck near Kanrtaroo Island (South Australia) on her first voyage. Tho witness Chapman said he remembered hearing that the vessel was close to the island, but he dirl not thing she touched. He left tho Waratah owing to his wife's ill-hcftlth. Han-.mond, chief engineer, and Evans, chief officer of the Tottenham, -steted that when tho bodies were reported to be floating i<* the water when the vestal was off. tho African coast, in July; 1909. the shin was ,ppt about and cruised for half an hour, but did not see any bodies ... Lyons, a steward, rtave evidence that after leaving the Cane tho Waratab bad a heavy list for sis hours until the tanks were filled.