On the second voyage of the s.s. Waratah homeward bound for London it was observed between Adelaide and Durban by passengers Mr. Claude Sawyer and Mr. Ebsworth a former merchant navy officer, that the Waratah tended to bury her bow into oncoming seas in calm weather and ship water for no apparent reason. It has been suggested that there being no external factors causing this it was due to her being overloaded, this was not the case as she was not overloaded. The Waratah did the same thing on her maiden voyage out and it was noticed by a number of passengers. On the first voyage out in November 1908 a Mrs J Paton from West Australia in the course of a conversation with a news reporter, stated that the ship did not impress the passengers very favourably. She said, "the ship rolled more than any other vessel I have travelled in, and I have had a fairly extensive and wide experience". Asked if the rolling was discussed among the other passengers she said "yes". "At times the rolling of the ship occasioned some alarm even to seasoned sailors working the ship, and one gentleman discussed the matter with one of the engineers who explained it away by saying the vessel had not found her sea legs yet". Mrs Paton said "there was no rough weather but there was a good heavy swell running most of the time". "On several occasions when we were sitting on the deck in fine weather the vessel gave an unexpected lurch to one side, causing everyone to slide down the deck until we were brought up against the railings. Same thing happened on the second voyage when Miss Lascelle broke her arm against the rail. She appeared very slow in recovering herself, and the seas which were running did not appear to be sufficient to account for the ships behaviour. I went to South Africa on a White Star liner, and could not help contrasting the violent motion of the Waratah with the steadiness of the vessel on which I had previously travelled. On the way out there were deck games almost every day, but we seldom had any on the Waratah owing to the motion of the vessel. The Waratah also had a knack of dipping her bows into the seas instead of riding them, with the result that in a head sea the propellers were constantly racing. I remember a much travelled New Zealander was very fervid in expressing the hope that we should not encounter any really bad weather in the Waratah, because he had a very poor opinion of her qualities. Personally I am not a nervous sailor, but owing to the general feeling of uneasiness which prevailed on board the vessel I was not sorry when I reached port".
MORE RUMORS OF GOLD ON THE WARATAH.
In his recent blog Andrew Van Rensberg claimed that 105 tons of gold was loaded in Sydney with just over 2 tons of silver. There are no official records whatsoever of the Waratah carrying gold and silver, and if there had have been it would have been well publicised. In 1909 gold production had slumped to an all time low. For that year only 85.92 tons were recovered and of this, up until the 31st of July 1909 only, 32.56 tons was recovered. For the whole year only 44.5 tons of gold was exported. I fail to see how 105 tons of gold was exported on the Waratah. For the whole year of 1909 only 4.9 tons in total of silver was exported. As a matter of interest the s.s. Pericles of the Aberdeen Line left Melbourne on June the 24th with 50 thousand pounds worth gold for South Africa which was shipped by the Bank of Australia. Most gold shipments went by the main carrier the P&O Company along with the Union Castle line, and the White Star line. The Waratah did not pick up any gold in Durban but what is interesting, is that largest shipment of gold ever taken out of South Africa was shipped aboard the Union Castle liner the Kidonan Castle. The gold arrived in Southampton in August 1909, the value being, 1,143,271 pounds, also on board the ship was a Mr Claude Sawyer who left the Waratah in Durban because feared she was top heavy and would not stand rough weather.
s.s. WARATAH.
s. s. WARATAH, with casks of tallow waiting to be loaded.
s.s. KILDONAN CASTLE, note pilot ladder hasn't been taken in before berthing.
s.s. KILDONAN CASTLE, leaving DURBAN with a slight list to port.
