WARATAH MYSTERY MAY BE SOLVED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19118, 10 July 1930, Page 7

WARATAH MYSTERY MAY BE SOLVED.

AVIATOR DISCOVERS A WRECK OFF COVE ROCK. (Special to the “ Star.”) DURBAN, May IS. “If Kurtz finds a wreck near the Cove Rock, I am sure that we are very near to the solution of the Waratah mystery.” This statement was made to a pressman to-day by an expert who, .because of the high position he holds, may not identify himself with the opinions. Thus, after twenty years of surmise and conjecture, there is a distinct possibility that the mystery of the wreck of the Waratah will be cleared up. According to a plan of the coast made some time ago by Lieutenant Roos when in the Union Air Force mail service, a wreck exists just off the Cove Rock, a few miles south of East London. No wreck is known or charted in this locality. Mr Fred Kurtz, the East London air pilot, is now trying to locate the wreck, but has so far been unsuccessful through bad visibility. The Waratah, which carried 000 souls from Durban, was last seen very near this spot, on the evening of July 27, 1909, when the Guelph signalled her with a Morse lamp. That, at least, is the last accepted news of her. Others reported having seen the vessel after that, but at the inquiry held shortly after the vessel was lost their evidence was not accepted. An authority declared today : Cannot be Mistaken. “The wreck of the Khedive mentioned in the present discussion cannot be mistaken for the wreck mentioned by Mr Kurtz, for there is a big distance between the two. The Khedive lies at Cape Morgan, which is to the north of East London, and the nearest known wreck to the south is the Cariboo. wrecked not so many months ago. “The Cove Rock is but a few miles from East London, and if the wreck is found it will prove that the evidence given by a farmer at Peddie that his native servant actually saw the vessel disappear, was correct. This evidence was not accepted at the time of the inquiry, as the time given was held to be a day out. “Peddie is a few miles inland from the Cove Rock. The first man to tell me of the native's stop’ "'as a MiBeet, a man of about eighty years of age. He was at one time the editor of the ‘Diamond Fields Advertiser,’ and his brother owned a farm in the Peddie district. “According to his story, he and his native servant were sitting on the verandah looking at a brilliantlv lighted vessel moving very sloVvlv down the coast. It was about eight o’clock in

the evening, and there was a heavy squall on. The man went indoors. But a short time later his native ser-vant-came running in to say that the ship with all the lights had suddenly disappeared. It was gone in a flash. Teak Door Washed Ashore. “If this story is true the native actually sa\v the vessel sink. Later, a teak door was found on the beach and was taken to the farmhouse, where it was used on a building and is probably there to this day. “The fact that no wreckage was found on the coast is not surprising. The current there turns couth, then east, and completes a circle, next striking land on the east coast of Mauritius. If • any wreckage Was found it would have been washed’ up there about a year later. “There is a very plausible theory to support this. The vessel was going slowly. This is proved by the fact that , she had taken twenty-fiv'e hours to reach East London. Under normal sailing she should have been near Port Elizabeth. She was a twin-screw vessel, and if one of her screws went out of action she would not be able to make full speed ahead. She would, however, have to steam as fast as she could to steer properly. This would be too fast for the giant forty-fcot waves that were running at the time. Thus she ran into a number of heavy w'aves and sank in a few moments.’*