I, Alfred Ernest Harris, of 120 Whitehall Road Gateshead on Tyne, make on oath and says as follows:
I am the chief engineer of the steamship Harlow of Sunderland owned by Messrs. J&C Harrison of London, and in June 1909, I sailed in her from Newport to Durban. On July 27th 1909 the vessel I believe, was about 180 miles from Durban, and at 7.30pm on that day I went out of my cabin on to the after deck. The weather on that day at that time was generally fine and clear, the sea was practically smooth, the vessel was proceeding at full speed ahead, and the coast was kept insight. For some time prior to this I had noticed a number of bushfires on the land, and practically they were all along the coast. I immediately after coming out of my cabin at 7.30pm aforesaid, I noticed two white lights apparently those of a steamer, on the port quarter, and as far as I could judge about 4 or 5 miles distant. I went immediately to the lower bridge and asked the master what the lights were, he replied they were the lights of a steamer. When I got to the lower bridge I also saw a red light which in my opinion appeared to belong to the same steamer as the one showing the two white lights. After a time I noticed large volumes of smoke which appeared to be in the vicinity of the lights, and I concluded that the smoke was coming from the steamer, though I could not see the hull of the vessel. There appeared to be a glow amongst the smoke. Five or ten minutes later, as far as I can remember, there was a large flare up in the heavens lasting a moment or two. It then died away, and the smoke and lights previously seen had entirely disappeared. I heard no noise of an explosion and no signals of distress rockets were seen. In talking over, these to me, unusual phenomena with the master and officers of the Harlow, I accepted the explanation which they as practical mariners deemed satisfactory, vis., the lights which I and the master had at first supposed to be those of a steamer were really from a signal station in the vicinity, (I believe Cape Hermes) and the flare was ascribable to the bushfires a number of which we had passed during the day. This seemed more probable to me owing to the absence of any signals of distress from the supposed steamer. It was not till after arriving at Manila, some forty odd days later, that we learned through the newspapers of the Waratah being missing; and the incidents of the lights and flares recurred to me. I am now of the opinion that the lights seen might have been those of the Waratah. At the time the flare appeared I remarked to the master if that was a steamer she appeared to be on fire. I do not remember him making any reply. The chief officer during the time was, to the best of my memory, on the upper bridge out of earshot, I should say, from were we were standing.
1/1/1910 sworn at Barry in the County of Glenmorgan, before F. Jones a Commissioner to administer
Oaths in the Supreme Court of Judicature.
Below I have included some pictures of what I believe would have looked similar to his description,
Harris gives a slightly different version to that of Captain Bruce who gives two different versions, one in the court that differs to his own affidavit. I do not believe that they saw a steamer.
