One of the passengers on the first voyage wrote to the press the following.
To the Editor,
Sir, since this vessel arrived in Australian waters the company has raised the price of a pint of ale from 6d to 1s., quarts to 1s 6., and whisky 6d to 8d, Don't you think this is red hot, seeing we are only poor third class- class passengers? By the way, what is the duty the company have to pay in comparison to the extra charge they have put on us? We have been supplied with the cheapest bottled beer to be had in England during the voyage, with the exception of now-we are using a reputable brand, as all the other has run out. Another thing, this vessel is apparently top heavy, and I consider she's dangerous, as the way she rolled since leaving Capetown is a fair caution. Over 80 dozen glasses have been broken alone, besides other gear in proportion, Yours etc a third class passenger. It's interesting to note that Mr Skailes the chief steward received a percentage of all beers and spirits sold, no doubt he had his hands out on this one.
Beers of the period.
WARATAH AND HER FREEBOARD.
Waratah had a free board of 8 feet which was assigned to her by Lloyds and considered high enough above water level for a ship of her dimensions. The calculation of freeboard is a complex one worked out by the naval architects that made up the board in authority such as Lloyds and the Board of Trade. It would not matter if her freeboard had have been slightly higher she would have still shipped green water at some stage. Some ships have open rails on the lower well decks which help greatly in green water shipped running off quickly. The Waratah had plated bulwarks 4feet 2inches high instead of open railings. These bulwarks had three wash ports on either side of the well decks to allow the water shipped to run off through, as well as scupper pipes to help the final draining of the water. These wash ports consisted of swinging hinged steel flaps that opened outward to let the water off the deck. They measured 3feet 6inches wide by 1foot 6inches high.
A wash port with a ring bolt to hold it open if need be.
One ship I was on had high bulwarks with wash ports and every time we shipped green water the well deck would fill up and before the wash ports could clear the amount of water shipped, another one would come over and you could feel the ship labouring and trying to rise to the sea with the extra weight, this was because they had not been maintained properly and did not open fully, they were partly frozen on their hinges. I took photos of the seas over the deck and when I returned to our home port I complained to the marine superintendent that it was dangerous and we could lose a man overboard, not only that, the ship was slowed up and straining and using far to much fuel according to the engineer and putting our E.T.A behind. In shipping time is money, thankfully he saw the problem and went back to head office to report our complaints. He appeared the next day and we decided remove the wash ports completely and weld three evenly spaced bars across the now new openings to prevent a man being washed through the open ports. Evidently the bean counters at head office didn't like the idea of extra fuel costs never mind about the added weight we had to struggle with or the poor bugger that might be swept overboard.. Eventually it proved worth while and the ship seemed a bit easier to handle and less strain on her. I believe according to the engineers figures the fuel bill over a year was reduced by at least 3%,
not a bad saving dollar wise.
With the Waratah and her forward well deck, if she shipped green water and was unable to get it to run off before the next wave came over she would be weighed down by 250 tons of water by calculation, and this is with the cubic volume of the large hatch coaming subtracted. She was hard to steer under favourable circumstances, can you imagine the after well deck filling up at the same time, I would say she would have been close to un-manageable steering wise. She had enough buoyancy when leaving Durban according to her draught, and she was no where down to her load her load line rated at 30 feet 4/2 inches.
Open rails, water managing to run off more freely than a ship with plated bulwarks.
Open ships railings.
Let us now take a look at a larger ship than the Waratah with a much higher freeboard, the Aquitania was a large ship in her day with a very high freeboard and she measured 901 feet long by 97 feet beam with a draught of 36 feet.
Aquitania with a very high freeboard.
Aquitania burying her bows into it.
Aquitania getting rid of a green one , note the wash port at lower left of photo.
It is interesting to note that the Clan Macintyre 2 during the storm had to open her gangway gates on her bulwarks to help get rid of some of the green water she was shipping.
