STEAMER ON FIRE. WAS IT THE WARATAH?

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1909, Page 7

STEAMER ON FIRE. WAS IT THE WARATAH?

HARLOW'S STATEMENT ANALYSED. WHY NOTHING WAS SAID AT ' DURBAN. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— -Copyright. (Received November 2, 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, 2nd November. The Times states that the committee of Lloyd's at first determined not to publish fuller reports of the Harrison liner Harlow in regard to a burning steamer seen off the African coast, owing to lack of substantiation". Private perusals, however, aroused conjectures, justifying the publication. A critical examination shows that if all was well, the Lund liner Waratah was "190 miles from Cape Hermes when the Harlow's captain saw the explosions. But if an outbreak of fire had occurred during the day, the Waratah would undoubtedly have retraced her course, hugging the coast, in order to beach the steamer and land the passengers. Thiswould explain the Clan Maclntyre and the Harlow sighting the vessel, though not the Guelph. Those disbelieving the Harlow's narrative argue if the Waratah was on fire, and she retraced her course, she should have been sighted by the Clan Maclntyre, which had been passed, bound from Durban, earlier. The Times adds that if the reported explosions occurred only three miles off Cape Hermes, it was strange that nothing was heard at the lighthouse, and that no wreckage was found. The paper repeats the statement that, owing to difference of opinion between the captain and officers as to whether what the Harrow saw was bush fires, and inquiries at Durban failing to show that any ship was overdue, the Harlow's captain did not report the occurrence till he heard that the Waratah was overdue. CAPTAIN OF THE HARLOW'S STORY. A CIRCUMSTANTIAL NARRATIVE. The first Intimation of the Harlow's having sighted a burning ship came to hand on 21st September, when the London papers published the following cablegram from Lloyd's agent at Manila : — "British, steamer Harlow arrived here from Newport News (Virginia) reports having parsed on 27th July, 180 miles' from Durban, a vessel on fire, but could not make out her name. Afterwards destroyed by an explosion. Supposed Warafcah with cargo on fire. Lloyd's Manila agent was asked to supply fnrther particulars, a«d wired a day or later confirming the captain's statement. He said: — . "A smoking vessel was sighted at 7.30 in' the evening, and the explosion occurred at 8 o'clock. The burning ship was too far off for the Harlow's people to ascertain her identity. The position of the wreck was 31deg. 18min. S., 29deg. 45min E." ,The captain of the Harlow suggests that the bottom of the sea be swept. The manager of the Lund Line discredited the belief that the vessel seen was the Waratah. He stated that the Clan Maclntyre reported sighting the Waratah at 9.30 on the morning of 27th July, in approxima,to position 32deg. 17min. S., 29deg. 17min. E. — a distance of about fifty-one . miles ahead of the wreck reported by the Harlow. The Union-Castle liner Guelph reported that she sighted the Waratah on the ev.ening of the 27th — the day on which the Harlow saw the burning steamer — and that sho was not flying signals of distress. The time of the sighting was not stated in the cable message. It is not quite clear, however, that the vessel seen by the Guelph was the Waratah, as the recognition depended on the third officer's reading of lantern flashes showing the terminal letters "tah." On the first- publication of the Harlow's news, shipping circles generally attached little importance to the story. The Harlow left Durban for Manila on 31st; July, and the question at 'once arose, Why did not the captain of the Harlow report the occurrence there? It was not a matter that either he or his crew could forget, especially as it occurred only the day before his arrival in port. Then, again, failing a report of the fire and "explosion at Durban, why was it not reported at Manila? After fifty-five days of sijence, the report came from London, and that in itself was taken as ar indication that it was but another of those unfortunate rumours circulated in regard to the Waratah. The fact that the captain of the Harlow did not alter his course to look for survivors of the burning vessel was also commented on as indicating a shocking lack of humanity, if his story were not a fabrication. WHAT A FARMER SAW. A STEAMER IN DISTRESS. Mr. E. J. Beet, a farmer in the East London district, gave to the East London Despatch a statement as to a steamer he saw in distress off the coast on Monday night, 26th July. Mr. Beet said that on that evening he saw a large steamer at a point opposite Cove Eock, and about six miles out to sea, steaming slowly westwards. After proceeding some ten miles along the usual trade route she stopped, blew off steam, and finally appeared to be drifting back towards East London, along a course two miles nearer inshore, rolliilg heavily, and showing signals of distress. On reaching a point near Cove Rock again she altered her course outwards, and finally disappeared. Later jn the evening he saw what might have been signals of distress. The weak point of Mr. Beeb's story — which is corroborated as to facts by other witnesses. — is the date, which he fixes as the 26th, -whereas the Waratah left Durban on that dale, and could not have been in the locality described till the following day. On the other hand, the fact remains that a steamer was been in distress, and no other vessel has been reported as missing or overdue. THE DYNAMITE THEORY. EXPLOSIVES JETTISONED BY A GERMAN LINER. A report that dynamite nad been observed floating oft" Durban raised a new theory for disablement or disaster in regard to the Waratah ; and it accounts for the fragments of whale and skute floating off the Bashee and Great Fish rivers a few weeks ago, which were mistaken for human bodies. The dynamite is probably part of 4000 cases which, wore .iettupned from ill? Nord>

deutsche Line steamer Borkuin, about 1600 miles from Durban, owing to that vessel catching fire. The Borkum sailed from Durban on 4th July foi* Australia, and six days later — 10th July — in latitude 32 south,- longitude 54.30 east, a fire was discovered in No. 4 hatch. Half an hour later several cases of spirits, 1400 eases ol pin, and 400 cases of dynamite were thrown overboard. The Borkum put into St. Louis Mauritius, on 15th July, when the fire was extinguished. It is said to be quite possible that the Borkum's 4000 cases of dynamite could, in seventeen days, float from .where they were thrown overboard on 10th July to the place wWe the Waratah might have been on 27th July.