MYSTERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23085, 9 July 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

MYSTERY

roast years ago because J. mistook a forest lire for a lighthouse. The lire was, roughly, where I expected to see the lighthouse. It blinked, or appeared to blink, in exactly the same code of flashes as that used by the lighthouse. " As to waterspouts, 1 have seen 13 waterspouts all spouting together in the Hay of Bengal and I do not believe there is anything to fear from them." The fourth witness of our inouiry was a well-known Lloyd's underwriter, who is a great authority on casualties. His explanation was the most interesting and most feasible of all. He said:

" The Anglo-Australian suddenly turned turtle through a shifting of her coal. It is quite possible that an outward-bound ship like the AnglofAustralian had a heavy load of coal j for the round voyage. '• It is possible that some of the ! coal, after the bunkers had been filled, j was stowed on the shelter deck. This is quite legal and legitimate in a vessel of the size and type of the AngloAustralian. In ordinary circumstances it involves no danger. Stormy Seas " Now suppose the Anglo-Australian hits a had storm. We suspect that she ilid as a matter of fact, because vessels passing through the same seas have come in badly battered. It is possible that when the ship was heeling heavily over, the coal would slip and tip tho ship over. " The moving of the coal would overbalance the ship. She would go over on her side. The wireless operator would be thrown down in his cabin, perhaps injured. " No loose object would fall into the sea. because everything had been made fast for the storm. There would be only one or perhaps two officers on the bridge, and one or two men on the deck. Till •ee bodies arc not likely to be found in the Atlantic Ocean. " All there would lie would be the rattling rumble of the coal, the cries of the men thrown over in tho forecastle, and the ship would plunge to the bottom in a few minutes. Two Cases on Record " There are two cases on record where this is believed to have happened. During the Boer War the brandnew Allan Line steamer Jluronian was ou her way from Liverpool to Canada to pick up fodder for South Africa. She had coal oil her shelter deck. She vanished without a trace. "The Waratah (10,000 tons), which left Durban for Capetown in 1909 with :iOO people on board, also vanished without a trace, and also had coal up on deck." ***** That is what four of the greatest experts in Britain think about the stnlnge mystery of the Anglo-Australian. Whether any of their theories is right or wrong no man may ever know. The episode will take its place among the great mysteries. The Board of Trade will inquire into it. Lloyd's will sift every grain of evidence. But until the end of time the sea will hold its secret.