Question No 1, Mr. Mark Dreyfus of Elizabeth South Australia writes, that after reading blogs on the Waratah, he wanted to know if it was it weak rivets that snapped under stress after the Waratah grounded at Adelaide and was her circumstances similar to that of the R.M.S Titanic as mentioned in the blogs, rivets (may) have snapped, creating a zipper-type effect where a seam of rivets snap successively between hull plates, opening up a gash in a force driven domino effect?
Answer Q 1, No this is only supposition by the writer who tends to compare what happened to the Titanic in her construction and the subsequent collision with an iceberg by which he assumes a similar effect could have occurred with the Waratah. To compare the Titanic or any other ship with their own set of dimensions or even their problems to that of the Waratah is incorrect, the Waratah was a ship specifically designed by her owners for a particular trade route and therefore must be treated independently when investigating her demise.
R.M.S. Titanic there is no comparison to the much smaller Waratah.
It is now known that the Titanic's steel plates were brittle and cracked easily in ice cold water under impact. There was also a shortage of steel rivets (some 3,000 000 million were required weighing about 1,500 tons), so a lower grade of wrought iron was used to make up the shortage, these rivets proved under impact much more brittle than the ships plates. The difference between the building of the Titanic and the Waratah was that the Titanic was not under Lloyds rules but the British Board of trade rules and therefore was never classified 100A1plus with Lloyds. The Waratah was built under Lloyds survey and every stage of her construction was monitored by a Lloyds surveyor. Any ship being built that required a Lloyds classification, had to use materials from steel mills which was then tested on site and approved by a Lloyds surveyor,(in this case SIEMENS-MARTIN mild steel was used).
EXTRACTS FROM LLOYDS RULES REGARDING MATERIALS.
HULL RIVETS
THE TIMES LONDON
With regards to the Waratah grounding at Adelaide she had no forward motion whatsoever and was secured to the wharf while loading cargo, she was heeling to starboard slightly but still had floatation, it was noticed that her bilge keel was touching the bottom which consisted of soft mud. Captain Ilbery was not happy with situation that his ship would have to sit on a mud bottom due to the fact he had to take in a great deal of more cargo. He insisted that his ship be taken to the Outer Harbour Wharf which was a much deeper berth allowing him to complete his loading there and to sail on completion rather than being stuck in the mud at Ocean Steamers Wharf, were he would be forced to wait for a spring tide to float the Waratah off which would result in putting him behind in his schedule. On the 4th of July 2017 I wrote an article (Waratah Arrives At Adelaide) dealing in part with the ship touching the mud at her berth.
LARGE STEAMERS AT THE DEEP OUTER HARBOUR WHARF ADELAIDE.
WARATAH UP RIVER AT THE OCEAN STEAMERS WHARF PORT ADELAIDE
