Fire on the Waratah on her maiden voyage.

 

s.s. WARATAH

I note with interest the blog WARATAH-REVISITED dated 27th of June 2015 the headlines read

WARATAH -PASSENGERS UNAWARE  OF FIRE. I should like to correct this, the passengers on the Waratah were well aware of the fire on board. A passenger from the steerage class on that voyage wrote from his diary the following. DEC 13th, This is a different Sunday to all other Sundays on board, but me so far as the weather was concerned, it was lovely on deck as there was a nice breeze blowing, and the sea was as calm as a mill pond, but otherwise it was a day of unrest. The first I heard that there was a fire on board. One of the coal bunkers got heated up or what they call (spontaneous combustion)  that is, coal being together and no ventilation, it heats up and gets alight. I was told it was a very common occurrence, and not dangerous. After breakfast I went up to see the fire but could not see anything with the smoke, they kept playing hoses on it all day.

 

This is just an ordinary man with no knowledge of ships describing in his own simple way that particular day of events. Evidently many of the lower deck class passengers also went to view the fire as this provided them with a break from the boring day today voyage as was described in an earlier entry of his diary.      

 

Did these drifting lifeboats come from the Waratah?

The top picture is of the Tyser Line ship Tomoana which sighted a life boat on January 2nd 1910 two days out from the Cape of good hope in the Southern Ocean. The lookout sighted a partly submerged lifeboat by the stern some twelve feet of its length under the surface. It was evidently a large lifeboat and painted white covered in marine growth indicating she had been adrift for some time. By the time the lookouts reported the boat to the chief officer on watch, the ship was well past it and the officer did not turn back for a closer look, he stated that he thought the lookouts had seen a large dead fish. There was no indication as to what the sea conditions were at the time, so we can't say why no closer inspection was made.

Picture number 2, is of the steamship Thistleroy 1. of 4,027 tons.

The ship arrived in Sydney Thursday 24th of February 1910, she had come from Newcastle on Tyne via Adelaide. On arrival  Captain Hayter reported that he had passed an upturned lifeboat on January 23rd 1910, (21 days after the Tomoana sighted a boat) the captain of the Thistleroy gave the position of the sighting being as Lat 39degrees south, Long 21 degrees east. The Thistleroy was running before a heavy south west gale, and actually just passed the boat when he was alerted by the lookout from the bridge. An examination through binoculars convinced the captain that it had been in the water for some time. It was painted white and also covered in marine growth, a good lookout was kept at the time but no wreckage could be seen in the near vicinity. The position given is on a bearing of 160 degrees SSE from the Southern Cape  and approximately  about 300 miles from the Cape, the gale at the time was quite severe preventing the captain from turning back for a closer examination. 

 

The question often posed were all the lifeboats on Waratah lashed down? answer yes, secured to the deck by chains to  ring bolts on the deck. They certainly would have gone down with the Waratah except for one or two boats. What we do know from evidence is that number one lifeboat on the port side was always swung out for an emergency,(man over board etc.), along with the number one boat at times on the starb'd side. I have often considered that the drifting boat, or boats could have come from the steamship  Maori, the Shaw  Albion cargo ship that broke up and sank one hour  after sailing from Capetown on the 6th of August 1909. The ship was completely wrecked when she struck Duiker Point and with the loss of two lives. Studying the currents and the pilot chart for the Southern Ocean, I am convinced that the lifeboat or lifeboats sighted were well into the current that would take them across the Southern Ocean in the direction of Australia and New Zealand for that time of the year. 

Did Captain Moore of the Insizwa sight bodies afloat?.

On August the 13th 1909 Captain Moore of the Insizwa signalled the Cape Agulhas Lighthouse that he had sighted four bodies off the Bashee River drifting south west with a large number of birds in the same direction. When the Insizwa finally anchored one mile out in Table Bay, a Mr. Blenkin from a Cape newspaper was the first to board her in the dark early morning. He managed to get an interview with Captain Moore while he was dressing in his cabin. Captain Moore told him: I have not, "he said, the slightest doubt that they were bodies of human beings. Two were clad in white and two in dark cloth. There were birds as far as the eye could see, flying in the same direction. There was no wreckage about, that happened at nine o'clock in the morning. The bodies were floating in close proximity of the ship, and I was able to see two of them out of the cabin window. The others were observed on inspection from a higher point." When Mr. Blenkin asked him why no boat was put down retrieve the bodies he gave two reasons, one, he had lady passengers on board and did not want to upset them. Two, that the cargo had shifted giving her a slight list, and it would have been dangerous to bring her about in the heavy running sea. Mr. Blenkin then went ashore and reported the interview to his paper and to Sir David de Graaf a Union Minister. At first this new evidence was accepted, but only at first. In his cabin with only one witness Captain Moore, had been very positive. When he saw his own words in print he began to have doubts. Mr. Blenkin who was upset by the discrediting of his story believed there was more behind the captain's change of face more than mere doubt. Mr. Blenkin wrote," was someone in authority in the company that owned the vessel, who immediately realised that if Captain Moore persisted in his statement both he (the captain of the steamer) would be held up, and the service of the line disorganised by compulsory attendance of himself and some of the crew at the Cape inquiry which had been forecasted?. Even though his statement was later backed up by the crew of the steamer Tottenham who also sighted bodies, the Court of marine inquiry dismissed bodies being in the sea. There is no doubt in my mind after studying certain facts, that there was bodies in the sea and in my new book I have given my reasons where they probably came from. In the above photo of the Insizwa she is heeling to port, she could well have sailed like this or she could be rolling from the beam swell encountered at the Durban bar. On one occasion going over the bar in a very heavy swell and rolling severely I did have some deck cargo break their lashings  which took some time to secure safely, quite a  dangerous operation for the crew involved.   

The right Clan Macintyre that spoke To the Waratah by signal lamp.

 

 

 

The Clan Macintyre 2, that exchanged signals with the Waratah at 6.00am on the morning of July 27th 1909 near Port St John on the east coast of South Africa. The above photo shows the Clan Macintyre entering Capetown harbour on another occasion assisted by a tug on her port side. Note the white  box behind the funnel with two small portholes, this was the accommodation cabin of the cadet officers on board. The 4th officer that exchanged signals by Morse lamp was Mr W.E. Carson who initiated the first signal to the Waratah. The Waratah was on the starboard side of the Clan Macintyre to within one mile or less, some observers have claimed the Waratah may have been in some trouble yet the observers from the bridge of the Macintyre stated that deck lights were switched on at this time, which indicates  the normal routine of washing down of the wooden decks  taking place prior to passengers taking their morning constitutional before breakfast.( Nothing seemed out of the normal). After the Waratah passed across the bow of the Clan Macintyre and headed out into the full strength of the current and disappeared out of sight at 9.30am newspaper reports claimed a storm took place. In actual fact and from the log book of the Clan Macintyre and with the evidence of Mr. Purssey Phillips at the inquiry the following was recorded. At 8.00am the wind was northerly and moderate, at 9.40 am wind began to freshen from westward, got to the west at mid- day, fresh in the afternoon then died away at sunset,(about 5.30pm). All readings were from the log book and signal book of the Clan Macintyre produced at the Inquiry.

 

Between 9.40pm and midnight on the 27th, the wind began to freshen again, at 2.00am on the 28th wind and sea increasing, vessel plunging heavily shipping heavy water- ran at half speed. In my book I have dealt fully with the evidence of Mr. Phillips and captain Weir of the Clan Macintyre before the inquiry, which runs into some 15 pages far to long for a small blog.        



Wrong Clanmacintyre.

This artists impression of the Waratah overtaking the Clan Macintyre on  the morning of the 27th of July 1909 is indeed a very impressive painting. There is how ever a glaring mistake and that is, the Clan line ship is in fact the Clan Macintyre 1, a turret class ship the same as the Clan Ranald which capsized in South Australia off Kangaroo island in 1909. The above ship was built in 1891 and later sold in 1902 and there fore could not be the Clan Macintyre which was overhauled by the Waratah in 1909. When the Clan Macintyre 1 ship was sold she was renamed the Bulgarian. On the 20th of January 1917 in the western approaches to Ireland she was torpedoed and sunk by the U.84 with the loss of 14 lives.  

Captain Ilbery with Captain R.Bidwell homeward bound on the Geelong to London in 1907, it was on this voyage that the Geelong rammed and sank a Norwegian cargo ship the Frogner in dense fog in the English Channel. The crew of the Geelong rescued all seventeen crewmen from the Frogner just before she sank. Badly damaged the Geelong limped back to London saved by her collision bulkhead in the bow. The Mayoress of Geelong Mrs Bostock was on board with her dear friend Mrs Govett of St Albans near Melbourne. In 1909 Mrs Bostock saw her friend off from Melbourne aboard the Waratah bound for England, sadly Mrs Govett perished with the Waratah. Please note this photograph is copy write and may not be used with out  express permission from me.