WARATAH.
Passenger built 1908 Barclay Curle, Glasgow for Blue Anchor Line. 9339Gt.6004Nt. L465'. B59'5". Dr27'. Two quad. expansion engines, five boilers, 1003 nhp, twin screw, 14 knots. 100 passengers 1st class, 750 emigrants. Maiden voyage 6 Nov. 1908 London-Cape Town-Adelaide-Melboume-Sydney. 26 July 1909 left Durban for Cape Town. Reported seen next day by Clan Macintyre but thereafter disappeared without trace near Port St Johns. 92 passengers + 119 crew lost. This was one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the sea. That a luxury liner, with ships both ahead and astern of it could vanish in broad daylight off the Wild Coast like that. The explanation generally accepted for the ships disappearance is that it fell victim to one of the unpredictable freak waves that are the scourge of this stretch of ocean. Between 1964 and 1973 six ships reported encounters with these abnormal waves (see Illus. Guide to the SA Coast, AAp204). - South Africa 1973. Label, NC (LB 14/171)