THE LOST WARATAH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15810, 28 December 1911, Page 3

THE LOST WARATAH.

[From Qun Correspondent.] AUCKLAND, December 27

A life-buoy bearing the name Waratah has been washed ashore on the West Coast near Waiuku. It. is not known how long the buoy had been on tho beach before it was picked up. It was covered w'ith barnacles and marine growth, evidently having bean in the water for some considerable time. Unfortunately the finder, in removing tlio barnacles, spoilt the name, but he states that when found tho name was plainly seen. The likelihood of the bliov having any connection with the liner Wnratah, which was lost off the African coast some threo years ago, w'as mentioned by a reporter- to a number of prominent deep-sea captains this morning. Captain Hard, of the steamer Star of Canada, asked for his opinion, said that lie was inclined to think that the buoy was from the ill-fated vessel. For tho last twenty years he had .thrown bottles overboard at various points in his voyage at the request of tho Australian and United States Government meteorological observers. Of course, a number of tho bottles were never heard of again, but lie had received a report on his last trip to England of three that had been picked up in various parts of tho world after driftirg for over three years. Ho remembered throwing bottles over on the African coast and at Cape Horn, and having- them reported from the West Coast of New' Zealand near Manukau. It was, no doubt, a long distance for the buoy to drift in such a time, but such things had happened before. Captain Murrison, of the Drayton Grange, said that it was by no meanh .impossible that the buoy was from the lost Waratah, though lie ''hardly- considered it probable. Nevertheless, the barnacles on the buoy pointed to the fact that it had been in the water for a long time. It would be a quick drift for the buoy to be carried 6000 or 7000 miles during the time that had elapsed since the loss of the vessel. There are small steamers and a cutter trading oil the Australian coast bearing the name Waratah, so that it is possible that the buoy may have been lost by ono of these vessels, while it may have come from the scow' of that name abandoned near Lord Howe Island last vear. The official search for the lost Waratah was abandoned on December 16, 1009.