LOSS OF THE WARATAH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 215, 20 December 1910, Page 5

LOSS OF THE WARATAH

FURTHER EVIDENCE. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. London, December IS. Professor Bragg, of Leeds University, a mathematician and physicist, who was a passenger by the Waratah on her maiden voyage, said he had the impression that the metacentric was slightly below the centre of gravity and within the vessel when upright. The Waratah's list was a continual subject of conversation. The captain, asked if he could do anything, said something must be done. The ship came upright and then fell to the other side. Witness became alarmed, but the chief engineer reassured him. He asked the captain if he had the stability curves, and found they were not on board. A junior engineer informed him that she was the tenderest sliip he had ever known.

Bruce, captain of the Marlow, recounted seeing flashes, and concluded that the Waratah blew up. Crossley, of Melbourne, detailed a conversation with the chief officer, who was dissatisfied owing to the vessel's peculiar habit of getting on one side without righting immediately. She fell rather than rolled. Cox, captain of the Tottenham, said he put back owing to an' officer reporting the discovery of bodies, but found it was sunfish. Stewart, second engineer of the Tottenham, declared that he and another engineer saw what be believed were bodies, also a ship's bed, but the captain said it was fish. A rumor circulated in the ship that they had better not say what was seen.

The Waratah, a twin-screw liner of 9000 tons, built in 1908, left Port Natal on July 26 last year on an SOO-mile run to Capetown, and disappeared completelv. About 300 persons were aboard. On July 27 the Waratah was last seen hull down by the steamer Clan Macintyre. She was then about 13% miles off Cape Hermes, and was apparently in good trim, the weather being clear and the sea moderate. Greetings had been exchanged by the ships as they passed. Later the wind changed, and at 5 p.m. there was a strong south-eastcrlv gale blowing with a high head sea. Next day there was a heavy storm, the gale coming in squalls of hurricrnc force, and tlie wa rising in wall-like formation owing to the current being against it. Subsequent searches proved fruitless. The Warntnli's hull was valued at £150,000, and she earrii'd a big cargo.