CAST UP BY THE SEA

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7994, 28 December 1911, Page 1

CAST UP BY THE SEA

WARATAH LIFEBUOY STORY OF MISSING LUND LINER REVIVED. SOME NAUTICAL OPINIONS. SPECIAL TO THE “TIMES.” 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 the beach before it was picked up. It was covered with barnacles and marine growth, evidently having been in the water for some considerable time. Unfortunately, the I 'finder, in removing the barnacles, spoilt the name, but he states that when found the name was plainly soon. The likelihood of the buoy having any connection, with the liner Waratah, which was lost off the African coast two and a half years ago, was mentioned by a reporter to a number of prominent deep-sea captains this morning. Captain Hart, of the steamship Star of Canada, asked for his opinion, said that he was inclined to think that tho buoy was from tho ill-fated vessel. For tho last twenty years he had thrown bottles over* at various points in his voyages at the request of the Australian and United States Government meteorological observers. Of course, a number of tho bottles wore never heard of again; but he had received, a report, 011 his last ’trip to England, of three that had been picked up in various parts of the world, after drifting for over three years. He remembered throwing bottles over on the African coast and at Cape Horn, and having them reported from the west coast of New Zealand near the Manukau. It was, no doubt, a long distance for tho buoy to drift in such a time, but such things liad happened before. Captain Murrison, of the Drayton Grange, said that it was by no means impossible that tho buoy was from tho lost Waratah, though he hardly considered it probable. , Nevertheless, the barnacles on tho buoy pointed to the fact that it had been in the water for a long limp. It would be a quick drift for the buoy to Ire carried GOOO or 7000 miles during the time that had elapsed since the loss of the vessel. There are. small steamers and a cutter trading on the' Australian coast bearing the name Waratah, so that it is possible that the buoy may have been lost by one of these vessels, while it may have come from the scow of that name abandoned near Lord Howe Island last year. The official search for the lost Waratah was abandoned on December IGth, 1909.