THE WARATAH MYSTERY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14139, 19 February 1910, Page 3

THE WARATAH MYSTERY.

SEARCH STEAMER STARTS ON TUESDAY. SOME SUGGESTIONS. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. (Received Feb. 19, 9.20 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Fob. 19. The Hon. F. A. Moor, Premier of Natal, bas cabled to Mr. Murray, Premier of Victoria, that the steamer "Wakefield leaves Durban on the morning of February 22 to search for the "Waratah. Mr Moor adds that Lieutenant Seymour and the Captain of the "Wakefield, after consultation, consider that owing to Marion and Prince Edward Islands, having lately been frequently visited, and seeing that the Kerguelen Islands aro permanently inhabited, the time occupied in searching them would bo better spent in visiting McDouall and Heard Islands. From thero the search could be continued according to instructions. A SAILOR’S STORY. DEAD BODIES SEEN. Per Press Association. WESTPORT, Feb. 19. A statement has been the Press Association agent boro by a member of the crew remaining in Westport of tbo s.s. Tottenham, which recently called at Westport for bunker coal. Ho says tho Tottenham left Durban about ten days after the Waratab, and steamed over the same course, bound to Antwerp. While off East London an apprentice at the wheel reported to the third of "Her that lie saw float past the ship tho body of a little girl clothed in a red dressing gown. The vessel put back. They did not see any body, but noticed several pieces of flesh and someth' ig resembling the trunk of a body mutilated l.y sharks. Tho man now in Westport slates that tbo chief and second officers of the Tottenham stated to him and others on hoard that they saw the body of a little girl, as reported by the apprentice, and could stake their lives that it was that of a girl TO or 12 years of age, and not a fish as previously reported in the cables. Tho second engineer stated that _ he saw the body of a woman in a nightdress with an albatross perched on the top, also the trunk of another body." Tho sea was running mountains high when tho Tottenham was proceeding on her voyage. Tho conclusion aboard tho Tottenham was that the Waratah took a heavy sea over her bows and before .she had time to recover took another, which staved in her fore hatch, and that she foundered.