THE WARATAH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 484, 23 September 1909, Page 3

THE WARATAH.

WAS SHE SEAWORTHY ? A PASSENGER WHO LEFT THE SHIP. SERIOUS MISGIVINGS. Mr Claude G. Sawyer, a passenger by the Waratah from Australia to London, had grave doubts as to the stability of the vessel, and, though he had booked right through, he left the ship at Durban, aud completed his journey in another steamer. Interviewed at Capetown as to his reasons for leaving the 'ship, Mr Sawyer said : “.We left Sydney in the Waratah on June 26th, called at Melbourne, where we stayed three or four days, and then at Adelaide, which was our last port of call on leaving Australia. During the first portion of the voyage the weather was somewhat rough, but nothing of any consequence. The latter portion of the voyage was extremely fine, and although the captain anticipated rough weather, on approaching Mauritius, bis expectation was not fulfilled, and we experienced beautiful weather. I had intended going on to Capetown with the ship-” “And what caused you to .alter your plans?” asked the interviewer.

“It was about ten days before we arrived at Durban —it might be a little more —that I decided to leave the ship.” “May I ask why?”—“Because I was not quite satisfied with the ship and the way in which she behaved.”

“In what respect ?” —“Well, when she pitched or rolled, as the case might be, she pitched and rolled so dead ; she was anything but lively.” “Recovered herself very slowly, I suppose ?”—“Very slowly ; and stayed in the position in which she was when rolling or pitching for a long while before recovering. I even spoke about the rolling to one of the officers. On another occasion I spoke to a passenger —a solicitor, of Melbourne, who conducts most of the leading shipping cases there, Mr Ebbsworth, and who had also been a sailor and an officer for seven years. I spoke to him about the rolling. We decided one day, accordingly, to watch the Waratah’s behaviour. It was a calm, fine day with big rollers coming straight towards us, going fore and aft. Whenever a particularly big roller came, the ship did not take it as she should have done, but put her nose right into it and remained there, apparently without any life in her. Mr Ebbsworth was, I thought, rather upset, and said that it was the first time in the whole of his experience that he had seen a ship do this. I often watched this afterwards, and several times told other passengers that I wished I were off her, the last time I said so being to a Mr Muller, when we were within sight of Durban, on th« Sunday morning.” “Several limes during the voyage,” Mr Sawyer remarked, “I looked at the list of the passengers as distributed by the captain amongst the various boats in case of an emergency. Mine was No. 4, with Morgan, Muller and with the third officer in charge, and on drill day I saw that our boat had a water-cask. However, if the ship turned turtle, there would ,not, of course, have been time to get the boats out.”

“I have been in the Geelong” (another vessel of the same line), went on Mr Sawyer, referring to the characteristics of the Waratah, “and she behaved very well in more than ordinary rough weather. Her captain, Captain Simmonds, in fact, said he had not seen such weather for twenty years, and he calculated that the waves were over seventy feet high.” “On that account, then,” continued Mr Sawyer, “I made the change at Durban, aud I tried to persuade several other passengers to do the same.”

Mr Sawyer continued his narrative of the voyage. “Several times after leaving Sydney,” he resumed, “I thought she was higher out of the water than any ship I had seen, except a German vessel which we saw at Port Adelaide. I could not tell which was the higher. At Adelaide we first stayed in the outer anchorage for a whole day, and I left in a tug, landing at the Semaphore. I next saw her at Port Adelaide, where it struck me that her bow was deeper in the water than the stern. At 4 o’clock I saw her coming in, and she took an hour and a quarter to get alongside after arrival. What I specially noticed was how she bumped the wharf. What passed through my mind was that the momentum of 20,000 tons at the rate of a foot a second on a small spot in the middle of the ship was not very nice. , “After leaving Adelaide,'’ the narrator went on, “ the ship rolled a good deal, occasionally giving several of the passengers severe falls. One morning, on my way to the bathroom, my steward remarked that she had been rolling heavily during the night, to which I replied that I had not noticed it, as 1 had slept well; but while in my bath I was astonished to see the water suddenly take an angle apparently over 45deg. and remain there so long that it brought to my mind what befell H.M.S. Captain in the Bay of Biscay, the details of which have not been forgotten, as we knew Admiral Hornby’s family well at that time. I spoke to one of the officers accordingly, and asked him what angle it registered. He said he did not know, whereupon I asked him, if he had an instrument on the bridge, to which he replied

that they had not, but the builder had seen to this, and he supposed it was all right.” A question was then put on the subject of the efficiency of the machinery of the vessel. Mr Sawyer replied by saying that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the machinery which, he added, was of the latest type, and of the most perfect character in every detail; he considered there was little chance of any mishap in that department. “ You say the ship seemed very high out of the water- —that is to say, she has a lot of top-hamper ?” —“ I think she has a tremendous lot of top-hamper. When she pitches forward, the stern seems to act as a lever, and keeps her down.”

“ Have you any theory as to her disappearance ?”—“ No, but her behaviour made me uneasy, and I thought it better to clear out; that was enough for me.”