Wreckage occasionally dredged up by trawlers.

One reader asked the question has there been any wreckage brought up in trawlers nets that has been identified as coming from the ss Waratah.?

Answer, Not to my knowledge as this would have indicated her position on the sea bed, however, over the years since her loss there was a steel plate thought to have come from the Waratah  which had been brought up in a deep trawl net from the main shipping route between Bird Island and Durban and was to be sent off to England for forensic tests to see if the steel was of the same molecular structure that was used in the construction of the ship which was manufactured by the Siemens Steel Company.There was another report of a piece of steel plate being recovered and sent to Capetown for analysis yet nothing was ever reported back to confirm that either of the steel plates recovered had any connection with the Waratah. Then there was the report of a trawler finding a set of head phones when the bag of the net was emptied out. This immediatley  indicated that the ships from that area were of a much later vintage due to the fact that the Waratah was not fitted with radio telegraphy at the time of her sinking. This leads one to the conclusion that these wrecks along that part of the coast were probably part  of the world war two conflict and victims of submarine attacks as was the ss Nailsea Meadow further to the north east which was carrying munitions and tanks.

                                                              ss NAILSEA MEADOW

 Two ships come to mind the first is the Deer Lodge and the beautiful three deck Dutch ex passenger ship the Motor Ship Colombia often misprinted as the ss Colombia.

                                                                        ss DEER LODGE

The ss Deer Lodge was carrying general cargo including oil and steel with a deck cargo of 3 trucks and four steam locomotives all bound for Aden, Suez. The ship was registered as being 6,187 tons with dimensions of 409 feet x beam 54.12 feet x depth 29.84 feet and was built in the U.S.A in 1919.
The ship was attacked in the early hours of the morning of February 17 at 0230 hrs. After being hit by a torpedo the master tried to zig zag but was hit with a second torpedo and the the ship sank at 0430 hours. Out the crew of 57 two were killed in the action and the rest were split up into three boats, one boat  with 13 crew members  were rescued by the armed trawler H.M.S.A.S AFRICANA  (T.01) and taken to Port Elizabeth. Another 32 crew members were picked up by the E. London trawler and taken to Port Elizabeth, the remaining ten crew in another lifeboat were rescued by the British hospital ship H.M.H.S ATLANTIS and taken to Capetown.

                                                    Hospital ship H.M.H.S ATLANTIS.

The second vessel the motor ship Colombia which was such a waste of a beautifully designed ex passenger ship being of  a size of 10,782 tons with the dimensions of 459 feet x 59.04 x 26.5 feet.

                                                                
                                                           M.S. Colombia in peace time.

                                    Colombia a three deck ship showing her well designed lines.

                                                                First class dinning saloon. 

                                                          Second class dinning saloon.

                                                                      First class saloon.

In August 1942 Colombia was assigned to East London in South Africa to provide support and maintenance facilities to Dutch submarines on passage from the far east.Columbia remained at East London until February 1943 when she was to sail to Simon's Town for dry docking. At dawn on the 27th of February Colombia left East London and was headed for Port Elizabeth where she was to anchor inshore overnight. Due to several convoys at sea there was a shortage of escort vessels and only the corvette H.M. Genista was available, the RAF was to provide air cover throughout the day as far as port Elizabeth. 

                                  HMS GENISTA , escort undergoing a refit in Port Elizabeth. 

Not long before noon on the 27th the Colombia with her escort ahead of her were zig zagging at Colombia's best speed with the current of  12.5 knots some 10 miles off shore. Her bottom was probably well fouled after sitting idle in East London for six months her maximum speed was usually about 15 knots. This distance offshore was a compromise between the British Naval Authorities in East London who would have preferred the Colombia to be sailing five miles offshore and the captain of the Colombia J. Hoeke who wanted stay twenty miles off the coast. At this time the sky was clear with flat seas ideal conditions for the twenty five lookouts that had been posted to spot submarine periscopes. None of these lookouts spotted the periscope of Uboat 516 commanded by Gerhard Wiebe's nor did the escort or Colombia detect the submarine by hydrophones prior to the attack which led them to believe that the attack was carried out from a long distance. At 11.41 am U516 attacked with a spread of 3 torpedoes at a distance of 1,500 metres hitting the ship forward of the bridge collapsing the bulkhead between the two forward hatches causing her to list heavily and filling her rapidly with water. Realising damage control was impossible the captain ordered abandon ship and lifeboats were got away in short time with 318 men, at a later roll call it was discovered  8 men had perished with the ship.  A sad end to a beautiful ship.

   

                                         Side profile of Colombia almost the size of the Waratah.