MYSTERY OF THE MATUNGA

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 112, 8 November 1917, Page 3

MYSTERY OF THE MATUNGA

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDSNT.) SYDNEY, 31st October. The mystery surrounding the disappearance erf the steamer Matunga continues to arouse much speculation, particularly within the past week, when a report by the Superintendent of Navjo-a_ tion, Captain Cumming, has been made available. The Matunga was a modern steel steamer of 1618 tons, was fitted with wireless, and bad 60 passengers and a crew of 30 aboard when she left Brisbane on her way from Sydney to Rabaul on 27th July. On sth August a wireless |, message, purporting to come from the , Matunga, was received' in Rabaul. It stated that she expected to arrive in Uabaul at 2 p.m., on her due date, 7th August.' Calculating on the known speed j ol the Matunga, she was then about 300 ! miles from Ra-bauL From that moment, i she hsus never been heard of, nor has any \ trace been found of her. Search steamers have gone over almost every foot of the ocean within a hundred miles of the spot where the Matunga was last heard of, and have found nothing. The sea was calm at the time the ship disappeared, and it is thought to be almost i impossible that the vessel could have been sunk without leaving a trace. The following theories are put forward to i account for the mishap. > She was sunk by an internal explosion I so destructive that the wireless was put out of action. Four cases of dynamite were earned in a magazine on the"bndgs and it is thought that perhaps some kind of detonator was introduced among this, or that an infernal machine was placed in the holds. This theory is discounted by the absence of wreckage. The vessel turned turtle. It has beer, said that she had a distinct tendency in this direction. Experts have enquired,! and find no evidence to support this view.

The vessel was overwhelmed by a seis- | tnic disturbance, known to have occurred in that region—which is right on the Japan-New Zealand earthquake belt—on 6th August. There was an earthquake in New Zealand about that date. The experts say that there is no record, in the locality, of a disturbance sufficiently great to overmhelm a vessel of the size of the | Matunga. j The vessel was taken by a raider, and Jis still afloat in the Pacific. This theory is favoured in nautical circles. An electric light globe, of a kind known ! to have been fitted on the Matunga, was picked -up by the searchers, but as this might have been di-opped overboard by the Matunga or any other vessel, it is | not accepted by the experts, apparently, 1a * definite evidence of anything.