THE MISSING WARATAH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 175, 17 August 1909, Page 2

THE MISSING WARATAH

THE HIGH RE-INSURANCES. UNDERWRITERS THOROUGHLY PESSIMISTIC. &J Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright' Received HI, 10.30 p.m. London, August 10. The Times, in its marine insurance market notes, staler ih.i, ./3 guineas, paid on Saturday for r "insurance on the Waratah, was ie;Ui,> a cuvering operation, and the fact tli.ii any rate was quoted was due to the possibility that what the captain 'of the tusiziva believed he saw was explainable by the wreck of a small craft.

It is probably as well to s'tale, tbe limes adds, that experienced underwriters best qualified to express an opinion have become thoroughly pessimistic.

OWNERS STILL SANGUINE. BELIEVE THE VESSEL IS DRIFTING Received 10, 10.30 p.m. Loudon, August 10. The owners of the Waratah are quite sanguine as to the vessel's safety, emphasising that other vessels, upwards of a fortnight overdue, owing to some mishap, have nevertheless reached their destinations. They consider that the Waratah is drifting in the ocean, probably towards Australia.

NO NEWS MAY BE GOOD NEWS. PROBABLY DRIFTING DISABLED. Although na'uri'ly the anxiety respecting the sr'ety of the Ulue Anchor liner Waratah is increasing every day, still the opinion is very firmly held by nnutioal men that the vessel is merely drifting in a disu'ilcd condition, and will eventually be picked up and towed to her destination. "No news is very good news in a way," remarked Captain Cuthbort, the chief surveyor to the Sydney Marine Underwriters' and Salvage Association, to a Sydney reporter a few days ago. "The fact that no wreckage has been found is reassuring. A big ship like the Waratah if deprived of her full power would lie driven far out of her course with the prevailing strong winds, and necessarily some time must bo spent in searching for her. No, I have no fear for the Waratah. She is all right, and she will turn up shortly, with her passengers in good henlth'and spirits." This opinion is shared by practically all the master mariners at present in this port (says the Sydney Morning Herald). No one ventured the opinion that disaster of a serious character had overtaken the Waratah. The ship herself is quite new, and a splendid specimen of modern murine construction. Every possible appliance has been introduced to minimise risk at sea, and oven hail she been in a serious collision her many bulkheads would still keep her nlloat. Commander Illiery, too, enjoys the confidence not only of his ownciv, but of the maritime community at large, and he is regarded as too cautious a general to take any risks. The Waratah, it is generally assumed, is drifting disabled, awaiting the arrival of assistance, and Commander Illiery is standing as far otf the land as 1 possible. Quite a dozen theories have been advanced by expert nautical men to account for thie disappearance of the Waratah, and many ways have been instanced in which even a twin-screw steamship may become absolutely disabled. A new suggestion made was that the crowns of the furnace may have collapsed. "Although it. can hardly bo called a common accident, still many casta could bo oiled in which the furnace crowns may have come down on the boilers," renin rked a master mariner with a long deep-sea experience. "Mis-haps of this nature," he explained, "are usually the result of using muddy fresh water hi the boilers. The effect of an accident nf this description would be to cripple the movements of a s'teu'inship." The Wniknto broke down in the Southern Ocean while on the voyage to Australia and New Zealand, broke her tail-shaft, and, as she was a single-screw steamer, drifted helplessly till assistance arrived.