Many newspapers of the period carried the story that the s.s. Waratah was sailing close inshore at a reduced speed on the morning of the 27th of July 1909 when she passed the s.s. ClanMacintyre heading for Capetown. One paper will write the story and many other papers pick up the same story and very soon it is broadcast all over the world. Where the story came from is a mystery as there was no truth in the article, papers while not being 100% correct did give some degree of truth in their reports, however having said that one paper gave an account that the Waratah spoke to the ClanMacintyre in lat 32 degrees 17minutes south and longitude 29 degrees 17 minutes east, this would have put the two ships inland near the western border of Lesotho. The Waratah was not close to the shore at any stage, Captain Alexandra Weir noticed the Waratah lying at the wharf at the Point, which is at the other side of the bluff , he did not notice any list of any kind and she was about a quarter to half a mile from his ship. Captain Weir states, "early on the morning of the 27th of July 1909 the Waratah was overtaking us and passed distant about one mile on our starboard side, I was myself on the bridge and with the assistance of my fourth officer spoke to the Waratah. At the same time as I and my fourth officer were carrying out a conversation with Waratah, my chief officer was taking a bearing of Cape Hermes which then bore south 88 degrees west true, and our position at that time was Lat 31 degrees 36' south Long 29 degrees 58' east". We can see from this that the Waratah was no where close to the shore, cadet Lamont thought the Waratah looked close about 5 or 6 ship lengths away.
s.s. ClanMacintyre 2.
