THE MISSING WARATAH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 476, 4 September 1909, Page 3

THE MISSING WARATAH.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TAKING ACTION.

Melbourne, Sept. 2

The Lund liner Geelong, which has arrived at Adelaide from the Cape, and the Arawa, from London, via Cape Town, both kept a sharp look-out for the Waratah, but saw no trace of her. The Federal Government has decided to dispatch a steamer to search for the Waratah. A cablegram has been sent to the Cape Government, inquiring if a suitable vessel, capable of making a long search is available there. HER LAST SIGNAL. London, September 2.

The steamer Clan Macintire has arrived in London. She reports that she received the Waratah’s last signal on the morning of July 27. It was the word “Good-bye.” A hurricane was experienced next day, the sea rising in a wall-like formation owing to the current running against the wind.

The absence of news about the Waratah recalls the memorable drift of 103 days of the New Zealand Shipping Co’s- steamer Waikato, from a spot off the South African coast till she was picked up, after having drifted for a long time in the Southern Ocean. The Waikato left London on May 4th, 1899, for Port Chalmers direct, and when she failed to reach the Otago port about the middle of July great uneasiness was felt concerning her safety. When public anxiety was. at its height a sailing vessel, the Tacora, arrived at Mauritius, and reported having spoken the Waikato on July 31, some 720 miles east of Port Elizabeth. She had learned that the steamer’s tail shaft had broken on June 5, soon after passing the Cape. Later on, the barque Aalborg arrived at Lyttelton with news that she had spoken to the Waikato on August 3, and obtained particulars of the breakdown. Meanwhile the Admiralty had despatched H.M.S- Melpomene, which searched for the missing vessel, but returned to port without her. Next came a report that she had been towed into Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony, at the end of September, but this proved to be unfounded. The steamer had drifted helplessly from the African coast over a vast tract of the Southern Ocean at the mercy of the winds and currents, then back, till picked up by the steamer Asloun and towed into Freemantle.

‘ ‘At the time of our breakdown,” said one of the Waikato’s officers, “we were 120 miles from Cape Agulhas, and, suggestions were made that a boat should be sent to try and make the coast, but the captain and officers thought that it would be almost impossible to reach land against the strong Agulhas current that runs down the South African coast past Port Natal, East London, and Algoa Bay, so there was nothing for it but to wait in hope of being picked up. At night we had a huge flare up, consisting of a large iron drum on the upper deck with a coal fire in it. On this, at short intervals, oil was thrown, which blazed up, lighting up the sea for miles around, “The current took us at first in a westerly direction, and then shot us off down south to latitude 4odeg., the ship drifting as much as 60, 80, or 100 miles a day. Some days, when we expected to be driven north by the gales, we would find instead that we were miles south of the previous day’s position. We were adrift for 52 days without sighting a sail, rolling and wallowing all the while between latitude 36deg. and 4odeg. south, gradually working east. “On the 103rd day the tramp steamer Asloun hove in sight, and at last our long wait was to be ended in longitude sodeg. east, and latitude 4ideg. south. After drifting about 2500 miles, and 1800 miles in an easterly direction, going round in squares, circles, and triangles, and crossing our own track seven times, we were really in tow at last, heading for Freemantle (W.A.). The Waikato’s bull was undamaged, with the exception of the loss of a good many of our deck fittings. Oil was used with very good effect when the seas were extra high. “From our experience, I should think that it would be almost impossible for a well-found ship like the Waratah to go down, as our vessel was only a cargo boat and she withstood it well,”