The evidence given by Captain Bruce at the inquiry was dismissed by the Commissioner and his assessors due to a number of reasons, the main ones being that his chief officer did not agree with Captain Bruce and said "they were bushfires", he also went on to say, "that if there had have been a ship on fire she would have been sending up distress rockets". The fact that Captain Bruce made no attempts to verify what he had seen and also that he made no report of his observations when arriving in Durban or during his stay, yet on the internet he is described as making enquiries about overdue ships. It is also on the internet that he and his officers failed to assist a ship in distress and conspired to do so by making all sorts of excuses in order not to turn about and go to the supposed ship on fire. Nothing could be further from the truth when closely questioned at the hearing as to why he did not report the event in Durban he replied that he did not do so for fear of being mistaken. This indicates that he was still unsure after a conversation with his officers wether it was a ship or not, I believe that if he was convinced it was a ship he would have turned about to assist, he was presented some years earlier with a bravery medal for saving life at sea which was mentioned at the hearing so he was not the sort of man to sail away and leave some one to die at sea. Captain Bruce said that on the 27th of July at about 5.30pm, just on dark he was 12 to 14 mile south of Cape Hermes when he noticed black smoke about 15 miles astern of him in the Coffee Bay area and saw two white lights which he took to be masthead lights one above the other of a ship and also a red port light and it appeared to him to be a ship on fire moving rapidly up the coast. Bruce himself was coasting, sailing close into the coast visually at about 1.5 to 2.0 miles off the beach and the alleged ship seemed to be more or further out to sea. If this was the case her masthead lights would have been open to the left of his starboard quarter, if she was dead astern of him the lights would appear in line one above the other, and if closer into the shore than his own ship they would have been open to the right on his port quarter but Bruce makes mention of either. The opening and closing of masthead lights at night gives the officer of the watch an indication of a ships heading. During the first world war some companies had one mast removed from their ships in order to not show a submarine if the ship changes course making it difficult for the sub captain to calculate a course to intercept the ship and put him into a position to sink the ship. Here we are talking about an unlit mast and only visible against a night sky line to the sub.
Let us look at some critical questions and put the Harlow story to bed for once and all.
1. Why didn't Captain Ilbery put down lifeboats with the passengers close into shore if he had a raging fire on board this would have been his first duty towards their safety?
2.If the ship was on fire off Coffee Bay or that part of the coast why was it not reported at a later date by any white settlers in the area or local natives.
2. At what stage or point off the coast did the s.s Waratah turn back on her course to Cape Town?
3.What could have caused a raging fire in a few short hours after leaving Durban, it could not have been the valves near the boilers because these would have been seen to when she was docked for seven weeks in London after the first voyage.?
4. It could not have been spontaneous combustion of wool, because this would have been noticed either before Durban by regular hold checks by an officer checking the cargo and lashings, and also when the hatches were opened up in Durban to discharge cargo.
5.A possible way a fire could have started in a hold would have been caused by the friction of metals in the hold setting fire to the timbers carried, or possibly the steel bands on the casks of tallow rubbing against each other with the motion of the ship and waves, and thereby generating enough heat to set the wooden staves of the barrel on fire then the tallow and eventually spreading to other cargo such as wool and timber.
6.Why did Captain Bruce assume the alleged ship was the Waratah? he could not possibly have known what ship it was because he had just crossed the Southern Ocean to South Africa on his way to Durban for coaling.
7. If there was an alleged ship behind the Harlow, why did it not attempt to signal the Harlow as it drew closer to the Harlow or fire of rockets to attract attention, a good lookout on the Harlow would have soon spotted them. Any captain with a ship on fire would be glad of any help he could get especially the unloading of his passengers and have the ship stand by until a solution one way or another could be found to his predicament. There would have been enough room aboard the Harlow for 211 persons.
8.Captain Bruce mentions the speed of the alleged ship was between 12 and 14 knots coming up fast behind him, how could he judge such speeds in the dark without the use of radar? any officer on watch will tell you it is difficult to judge distance at night and speed unless the ship is on a broad angle and regular bearings taken at say five minute intervals and plotted, one is then able to plot her course and speed a method relied on without the use of radar.
9.One writer wrote the ship was on fire because of the thick black smoke coming out of her funnel, when a steam ship is making thick black smoke from her funnel it is not because she is on fire but simply means the stokers were laying a few on her, (shovelling large amounts of coal into the furnaces to build up speed) or blowing tubes, (cleaning out the boiler tubes of excess soot), I have done this on many occasions during my long years at sea.
10. Captain Bruce did say that he could not see any other lights to indicate it was a passenger ship, it was not only large passenger ships that carried two masthead lights but also cargo ships over 150ft in length, the mast lights in that period had to be visible for 5 miles with the aft mast light being 15ft higher than the foremast with the red and green sidelights to be visible for 2miles.
11. At 7.30pm the Harlow was abeam of Cape Hermes light and altered course more to the east for his run up the coast to Durban, at 8.0pm he came out from the charthouse and saw to red flares ups one about 300feet high and one about 1,000 feet high roughly about six miles astern of his ship, which he thought was bunkers exploding. After that he could not see the alleged ship which he estimated to be in Latitude 31degrees 38minutes south
Longitude 29degrees 35 minutes east, this is 1.5 miles due east of Cape Hermes light or in the mouth of the St Johns River.
12.It is said that the Waratah sank 7.8 miles north east of Cape Hermes, if this is the case that puts the alleged Waratah ahead of the Harlow, the Harlow would have only been 4.5 miles north east of the Cape Hermes light at 8.00pm after altering course at 7.30pm and doing 9knots, the alleged Waratah could not have possibly have been so far north at 8.00pm.
13. The position given by Bruce puts the said ship right under the nose of the lighthouse yet the light keepers neither saw or heard anything in the way of an explosion, this is excused by a writer saying the smoke from the bushfires would have obscured the keepers view, I doubt this being only 1.5 miles from the ship yet Bruce being 4.5 miles away could see the flare ups. If a ship had have been that close to the light he would have certainly sent up rockets at one minute intervals which would have been the prescribed white rockets by the Board of Trade, these rockets were white on their way up through the air and exploding loudly bursting open like a roman candle with white balls. they would not have been red rockets as claimed on the internet. Why didn't any one in the St Johns river settlement see a ship on fire they would have been close enough to see a ship on fire at sea.
14. I don't believe captain Bruce saw a ship perhaps he saw bush fires racing up the sides of hills at different heights, with regards to the white lights he may have been suffering from a medical complaint such as diabetes which can affect the eye sight. Perhaps he saw a star low in the sky or a light on the land which turned into two lights due to double vision which he thought were masthead lights. This condition can also be caused alcohol intoxication, cataracts of the eyes, smoking, sleep deprivation and strained eye muscles as well as fatigue.
15. If there was a ship so close in to Cape Hermes, surely with all the modern marine technology of today why hasn't a wreck been discovered there?, for example trawlers in the area may have snagged nets on an underwater obstruction or located it on their sonar. Local recreation fisherman would have soon located it as it would have formed an artificial reef for fish that would thrive on the rich nutrients being flushed down the St Johns River. Why haven't Navy ships found a wreck when surveying that part of the coast over the years?, and with the amount of scientific surveys carried out along that part of the coast it is a wonder they haven't also come across a wreck 1.5 miles or thereabouts near Cape Hermes not north of it.
Coffee Bay looking Northwards.
Entrance to St Johns River from the Cape Hermes Lighthouse.
Cape Hermes Light House 1908, Note keeper at the focal plane of the light.
Ships in Durban Harbour Rafted together, ship second from the right could be the Harlow.
Small cross alleged wreck, arrowed line Harlow's track, Large cross Harlow's position at 8.00pm.
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