In memory of those that perished on the ss Waratah.

On the morning of the 27th of July 1909 at 6.00 am local time 108 years ago on the east coast of South Africa, two ships signalled a total of 32 words between them. The Clan Macintyre called up the passenger ship the ss Waratah by signal lamp and exchanged pleasantries, after the exchange the Waratah pulled ahead of the Clan Macintyre and was last seen on the horizon at about 9.30 am and simply disappeared creating one of the greatest sea mysteries of the century. The Waratah was the new flagship of the Blue Anchor Line of London and was on her second voyage from England to Australia and home again with 211 souls that perished with her.

                                                                       SS WARATAH.

                                           SS CLAN MACINTYRE 2  at Capetown on a different voyage. 

The officer that initiated the the first signal between the two ships was the fourth mate of the Clan Macintyre Mr.W. E. Carson aged 19 years who flashed, what ship? to the Waratah. According to the chief officer Mr. George Phillips who had the watch from 4.00 am to 8.00 am said the signalling lasted about half an hour. The crew of the Clan Macintyre amounted to a total of  69   persons, mostly Lascars with white officers in control.

                                                                  THE WHITE CREW. 

Master Captain A. Weir,
Chief Officer G. P. Phillips
2nd Officer W. Crichton, 
3rd Officer W. Cothmander,
4th Officer W.E. Carson, 
Midshipman S.P. Lamont,
Midshipman D. Shaw, 
Chief Engineer P.Jackson, 
2nd Engineer  J. Sweeny, 
3rd Engineer E. Potts,
4th Engineer D.Shaw, 
Steward J. MacKenzie. 
Please note Mr. Rider who was the 2nd officer of the Clan Macintyre on the voyage before but had paid off, gave an interview to the press at Hobart in March 1910 when he was then a passenger aboard the ss Ionic on his way to New Zealand  describing the the events of the present voyage mentioned above. He was obviously describing events that must have been related to him  by a fellow officer when the Clan Macintyre  docked on arrival back in the U.K. The above crew list was taken from actual records of the time in question and is correct.

                                     Let us not forget those lost aboard the Waratah 108 years ago.

                                                                 The Ocean
                                               
                                                 The ocean has its silent caves,
                                                 Deep, quiet and alone;
                                                 Though there be fury on the waves,  
                                                 Beneath them there is none
                                                 The awful spirits of the deep
                                                 Hold their communion there;
                                                And there are those for whom we weep, 
                                                The young,the bright and fair. 
                                                Calmly the wearied seamen rest
                                                Beneath their own blue sea.
                                                The ocean solitudes are blest,
                                                For there is purity.                                                 
                                                The Earth has guilt, the Earth has care,
                                                Unquiet are its graves;                                               
                                                But peaceful sleep is ever there,
                                                Beneath the dark blue waves. Nathaniel Hawthorne.

   

July 3rd 1909 Waratah arrives at Adelaide.

108 years ago on the 3rd of July 1909 the Waratah arrived at Adelaide for a four day stop over before leaving at 4.30 pm on the 7th of July for Durban  and Capetown on her homeward voyage to London. Adelaide pilot Mr. I. John McDiarmid joined the Waratah two miles south of the Port Adelaide Lighthouse and piloted her up the River Torrens to  Ocean Steamers Wharf, her draught taken at the berth prior to loading cargo was 25 feet 8 inches forward and 26 feet 4 inches aft.

                                        Port Adelaide Light House on Neptune Island in 1909.

                                             Waratah berthed at Ocean Steamers Wharf Adelaide.

               Ocean Steamers Wharf Looking south, ship across river is at Birkenhead Wharf.

In 1907 the chart datum or depths at Ocean Steamers Wharf showed an average depth of 25 feet 6 inches for the full length of the berths along this wharf.  The actual chart showed in the notes that High water Full and Change at 5 hours 10 minutes, rising to 8.5 feet at springs and 5 feet at neaps. The High water Full and Change simply means, the FULL refers to the time of FULL MOON and the Change to the time of a NEW or changing MOON, (every two weeks).   The Waratah touched bottom at low tide in very soft mud because her draught was over 25 feet and  increased as she loaded more cargo, much has been made of this by bloggers who obviously do not understand ship construction and bleat about her bottom plates being made of brittle steel and her rivets breaking under stress because they had a high sulphur content, no known evidence, scientific or otherwise has been put forward regarding the Waratah by these bloggers. If this was the case Barclay and Curle the ship builders would have soon been out of business for using defective materials. Bloggers point out the Titanic with her brittle plates partly due to below freezing temperatures of the North Atlantic waters, combined with weak rivets which in certain hull plates were found to be defective, they immediately  assume this could be the case with the Waratah. The Waratah  cannot be compared with the Titanic, both ships were vastly different in size and built specifically for two different trade routes.When the Waratah touched the muddy bottom she did so in a gentle manner with the fall of the tide as opposed to a sudden drop like a brick which could of course be likely to spring rivets, if this had been the case quick soundings of the double bottom tanks would soon show any ingress of water, obviously the hull remained intact, otherwise Captain Ilbery would not have sailed if there was any serious damage,  he would have also put in a notice of protest to the British Consul at Adelaide. One blog posted reads,  Captain Ilbery stated on arrival at Durban that the Waratah had sustained no damage since departing Adelaide but the wording did not include damage sustained at Adelaide. The writer is implying that there was damage but can give no proof of it which infers that Captain Ilbery was lying in his signed declaration. The Waratah was by no means the only ship to sit on the mud at low tide many ships were subject to the same plight yet none seemed to suffer any ill effects, there was difficulty for some wanting to leave their berths and had to wait for the right tide, one White Star Line ship waited for thirty hours. Captain Ilbery expressed his concern about his ship to the Marine Board and also to the shipping agent about the state of the river bottom at the berths and the strains that could be put on a ships framing. Another concern he had about being on the mud was that of his chief engineer Mr. George Hodder who was worried about the cooling water for the main condenser, cooling water is taken in from the sea by two suction intakes in the ships hull, only one at a time is used. One suction or intake is right on the bottom of the hull and the other is just below the waterline on the side of the hull. These two intakes are called sea chests and are protected by grills to stop any foreign matter being sucked in and blocking the pumps. The biggest worry of course is the sucking up of mud and sand silt into the pump, I suspect that Mr. Hodder would have used the higher up intake on the side of the hull while in the river.

                                                  Upper sea chest intake on ships side.

The problem of the conditions in the river resulted from a lack of dredging as there was only one dredger in use and this was working at the new outer harbour berths to accommodate very large passenger liners. This was a continual operation to keep the depths at the river entrance and the berths at 32 feet deep, therefore the dredger could not be spared for the river. Ships master and their companies were not happy about their ship using the Ocean Steamers Wharf but faced with the option of loading and discharging cargo into lighters and having coal brought out to them, the cost factor won over because they saved 10 shillings on  a ton on coal and six shillings on a ton of cargo by not using lighters at the outer anchorage, there was also the factor of the time effect and delay in turn around times in order to keep voyage schedules.

                                         A new suction dredger arrives in Adelaide in 1911.

The Waratah was moved to the Outer Wharf where she took in the remainder of her cargo prior to departure. It is said without proof, that the Waratah was over loaded but that is certainly not the case according to official evidence. For example, the stevedore foreman makes mention of the fact the harbour master checked the Waratah and her draught marks to ensure she did not over load as he did with all ships in his port. Captain J.H Gibbon who was the Lloyd's surveyor for Adelaide and warden of the South Australian Marine Board was given the draught marks and calculated the freeboard of the Waratah in salt water at 10 feet 3 inches and made mention of the fact that she was 2 feet 2 inches lighter than her Lloyd's marks, in one of her upper tween decks she had additional cargo space for a further 150 tons or more   ( so much for being over loaded.)

                        Captain J.H Gibbon, he also had Port Gibbon in South Australia named after him.