What happened to the SS Waratah?

What Was the SS Waratah?

On July 26th, 1909, around 8:15 pm, the SS Waratah, a passenger and cargo steamship departed from Durban, South Africa toward Capetown. It was expected to arrive just days later, however, the ship disappeared with no trace and all 211 of its passengers perished.

 Known as “Australia’s titanic”, as she had eight watertight compartments and was considered unsinkable. The disappearance was bizarre since no wreckage was ever found from the ship. In addition, there were more than enough lifeboats for everyone. In this post, we will examine the mysterious Disappearance of the SS Waratah, and theories regarding what happened. 

The SS Waratah Voyage

On July 27th, 1909, around 4 am, just after the departure, the ship was in transit on its 800-mile trip when it would be spotted. the Clan McIntyre Freighter would see the ship headed their direction. Both ships were going the same way, but the Waratah was a faster ship and soon pulled alongside the Clan McIntrye. The ships communicated using signal lamps as to their names and destinations. Then, the Waratah would pull ahead and disappear into the distance around 9:30 am. 

Once the Waratah disappeared from sight, the captain of the Clan McIntyre would recall a strange premonition he had. 

Captain C. G. Phillips, an experienced captain, was looking out at the sea when he sighted something strange. He saw a sailing vessel, but what struck him as odd was that the ship appeared to be several hundred years old. The captain had spent a lifetime ln the sea and knew ships, yet he had never seen one like this. The strange ship was headed in the same direction as the Waratah, and the captain got a terrible feeling. The captain believed it was the legendary Flying Dutchman. 

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship, said to never be able to port and roam the seas for eternity. There were many alleged sightings reported in the 19th and 20th century. 

While the strange premonition of Captain Phillips was certainly bizarre, he wasn’t the only person who got a bad feeling around the ship’s voyage. 

Claude G Sawyer was a businessman that was travelling home to England. Mr. Sawyer had planned on taking the trip on the SS Waratah, but never got on the ship. According to his testimony, Mr. Sawyer began having terrible nightmares around the voyage and decided to stay ashore in Durban. 

As recalled in the Daily observer Newpaper:

“He dreamt of standing on the ship’s boat deck staring into the sea. Suddenly, a knight on a horse rose out of the waves swinging a medieval sword. A bloodstained sheet was fluttering behind him. The apparition screamed out ‘Waratah! Waratah!’ then faded.”

The Bad Luck of the name Waratah

While his story is truly strange, many even pointed out that using the name “Waratah” for the ship was a terrible idea. In the 19th century several ships that were named “Waratah” had endured disaster at sea which led many to believe the name was a cursed. 

In 1889, a new ship named Waratah sank off Cape Preston, Australia and all passengers died.

Two years prior, 2 ships both named Waratah sank off the coast of Sydney within months of one another. 

In 1847, a ship named Waratah sunk off the Ushant, an island in France. All the passengers would die. 

While this disappearance has left many unanswered questions, over the years several theories have formed on what happened to the ship.

Theories on what happened to the SS Waratah

The first theory is simply that the ship sunk at sea due to weather conditions. However, this theory generally doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If the ship had sank in a slow manner, with passengers and crew aware, we would expect that wreckage would have been found. The boat was equipped with 921 lifeboats, as its maiden voyage had many more passengers. After the ship didn’t return, two separate searches were conducted in the area where the ship was thought to be, and nothing was ever found. 

Probably the most popular theory is that the vessel was hit by a rogue wave. The waters that the vessel was sailing in were renowned for producing massive waves. It is thought a massive wave hit the ship and capsized her pulling her down to the ocean floor almost instantly. This theory gained more support when in 1973 Professor Mallory wrote a paper and concluded that waves over 60 feet occurred in the area the ship was sailing. 

One similar theory to the one above is that the ship capsized, essentially trapping all passenger and crew in the boat. The ship then floated off course for miles before sinking. This would explain the failed attempts to find the ship over the years. 

One other theory is the ship lost its rudder in a violent storm and drifted out to sea. Many believe the people headed toward Antarctica and the passengers either starved to death or died from the elements. It should be said the ship had no radio, which wasn’t uncommon in those days, but if they did lose their rudder, they wouldn’t have been able to send out a distress call.

The final theory concerns a whirlpool. Whirlpools are found in the oceans today and aren’t rare. It is thought by some the ship mistakenly went over a whirlpool and was sucked to the bottom.

But can a whirlpool be that big and powerful? 

In the Saltstraumen Strait, off the coast of Norway, a massive whirlpool exists and is believed to be the biggest ever discovered by man. The whirlpool is 30 feet in diameter flowing at 40 km per hour. With so little known about our oceans, it’s reasonable to assume this could have occurred. 

Still, the ship itself, like the Titanic, was massive in size. It was 450 long and weighed 9,400 tons. The ship was elegant having 8 state rooms with 100 first class cabins and a saloon and music lounge. Despite this, some passengers from the maiden voyage questioned how safe the boat was. some felt the ship rolled a little to hard. 

To date, the two main questions surrounding the ship are the lack of wreckage and why it has never been found. There have been several efforts to find it, but with no luck. This is obviously due to the difficulty with finding lost ships in the massive ocean. 

Perhaps one day we will find the ship and be able to discover what happened.