REMAINS OF WARATAH?

Southland Times, Issue 22042, 15 June 1933, Page 7

REMAINS OF WARATAH?

DARK OBJECT IN SEA. 1909 DISASTER RECALLED. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) Cape Town, June 14. An aeroplane with a marine surveyor aboard left Durban on Tuesday in an attempt to locate an obstruction on the sea bottom off the Umcababa river on the Natal coast which recently holed a passing vessel. An aeroplane flying at 2000 feet above the sea saw a large dark object 185 feet long and 45 feet broad which is believed to be a submerged wreck. Durban opinion inclines to the view that it is the remains of the Waratah, which was lost about July 28, 1909, while en route to Cape Town. Further steps arc being taken by the Admiralty. The British liner Waratah left Durban for Cape Town on July 26, 1909, and was never heard of again. A Board of Trade inquiry, which lasted 15 days, found that the vessel probably capsized in a gale on July 28, 1909, but no cause could be determined. SUGGESTION RIDICULED WARATAH FURTHER SOUTH. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 12.30 a.m.) Cape Town, June 14. The authorities ridicule the suggestion that the submerged object is the wrecked Waratah, which was last spoken of 150 miles southwards. The Waratah’s high deck fittings would be observable periodically' in 60 feet where it is supposed the wreck lies. If the object is a wreck it is believed to be the Trichera, which was last heard of in 1903. It had a cargo of sleepers from Bunbury.