WRECKAGE FOUND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9643, 8 November 1909, Page 5

WRECKAGE FOUND.

ON SOUTH AFRICAN COAST,

CAPETOWN, November 5. A quantity of charred and broken decking, and a deck-hatch, have been washed ashore at Port Alfred, Cape Colony. BELIEVED TO BE FROM AN OLD WRECK. \Received November 7, 5.5 p.m. CAPETOWN, November 6. It is believed that the wreckage found at Port Alfred is from an old wreck.

It would be premature to conclude that the wreckage found is from the Waratah. It is more than likely it is from the North German liner Borkum. This vessel sailed from Dur ban. on 4th July for Australia, and six days later--10th July—in latitude 32 south, longitude 54.30 east, a fire was discovered in No. 4 hatch. The Borkum put into St, Louis, Mauritius, on 15th July, when the fire was extinguished. Some danger ous cargo, consisting of a large number of cases of dynamite, was thrown overboard from the Borkum, and it was thought possible that the Waratah might have come to grief through coming into, contact with this dynamite. It is more probable that the burnt wreckage has in the three and a .half months that has elapsed floated ashore from the place where the fire occurred, 1,600 miles away.

Mr G. A. Maltby, brother of Mr A. R. Maltby, of Masterton, who was recently on a visit to lhis town, and who knew the missing steamer Waratah well, states that there was no question but that the vessel was top heav.v. On one occasion when the vessel was unloading in London, stated Mr Maltby. when one ton of cargo was taken out a ton of coal had to be loaded in to balance her. The stevedores who loaded the vessel at the time remarked on her being top heavy. The Waratah was on her way Home to have her top deck altered. The whole question came up recently in the House of Commons, and when Mr Churchill was pressed to give information on the matter he would say no more than that a searching enquiry would he held as whether the vessel was top heavy. Mr Maltby, who is on the steamer Tainui, had been offered a position on the Waratah, but he had signed un with th& Tainui in London days before.